It is 1943, and also the army--ravaged and demoralised--is retreating from the front. In the middle of the madness, battle brews between the aristocratic yet fundamentally pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the Corporal Steiner. Stransky may be the person who thinks that the Third Reich is still superior to the Russian army. Within his pompous character lies that he can return to Berlin a hero, a coward who longs to the Iron Cross. Steiner, however is doubtful, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the security of his men in contrast to the horde of decorations offered to him by his own superiors.