In July 1942, in the Second World War, the rearguard of the Russian army protects the bridgehead of the Don River against the German army while the retreating Russian troops cross the bridge. While they move back to the Russian territory through the countryside, the soldiers show their companionship, sentiments, fears and heroism to defend their motherland.

Screen adaptation of the novel by Yuri Bondarev. The demobilized Sergei Vokhmintsev returns to Moscow and enters the institute. Suddenly, according to the neighbor’s slanderous denunciation, his father is arrested — and Sergei, as the son of an “enemy of the people," is expelled from the party and institute. The guy goes to Kazakhstan, works at a construction site. He has many loyal friends and believes in justice...