It is 1943, and the forces of the Red Army are entangled in battle near Vyazma. A young platoon commander just arrived from college refuses an order to lead his soldiers to certain death straight into the machine-gun fire of the enemy. In a rage, his battalion commander sends him to the divisional court martial. The youth is escorted by a detective of the court and a veteran soldier. As they make their way back to base, they come across a former German hospital and a burnt-out village. The detective is compelled to organize his own trial and to shoot the traitor himself, but the old soldier intervenes on behalf of his demoted commander. Soon they arrive at the position of the division headquarters, only to find that the command has redeployed and that the site is now a field hospital. Here it becomes clear that the old soldier is not exactly who he claims to be, while the demoted youth performs an act of heroism that forces the court detective to rethink his opinion…