Young Florya is sent by the invasion of a village at Byelorussia by German forces into the woods to join with the tired Resistance fighters, contrary to the wishes of his family. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. Florya finds his loved ones and peasants massacred on returning home. His continued survival amidst war's barbarous debris becomes nightmarish, a conflict between hope and despair.