The film is based on authentic events that took place in 1957 in Kursk. Fifteen years after the war, the sappers will have to clear away the ammunition depot left by the German's. The town rebuilt with such difficulty is under threat of explosion...

Based on the novel of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov, about the fate of people broken by the First World War, the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922), about the collapse of the foundations and ideals of the Don Cossacks of Russia at the beginning of the XX century, about the personal tragedy of the protagonist — Grigoriy Melekhov.