A first episode in the trilogy about the Russian partisan's resistance against the Nazi occupation of Russia during WWII. The film is set in August of 1941, when the Nazi forces invaded and occupied the European part of Russia. Major Mlynsky is in charge of the special group of partisans. His group is absorbing other small groups of Russian soldiers, who managed to survive from the attacks of the overwhelming Nazi forces. The Nazi Armies are advancing to Moscow. Major Mlynsky is organizing the Russian partisan's resistance against the Nazis, behind the enemy lines.
The girl Frosya Burlakova comes to Moscow from the remote Siberian village of Eltsovka to become a singer. She stops at the sculptor Nikolai Vasilyevich, who studied at a school in Zaporozhye, where their mutual friend worked — a school caretaker, who then moved to Siberia. Completely unfamiliar with the life of big cities, Frosya amuses Nikolai Vasilyevich himself, his girlfriend Natasha and the housekeeper with his provinciality and spontaneity. However, the absolute sincerity and spiritual purity of Frosy make the sculptor think that he himself has long been stuck in lies, vanity and commercial work, exchanged his artistic talent for trifles and lost his creative path.
One of the anthology films about Soviet citizens resisting the Nazi invaders during World War II, the feature consists of two stories, one about a teenage woman telephone operator who sacrifices herself, the other about a farm girl tending a sick pig who deals with two paratroopers seeking shelter.
