제2차 세계대전 때 소련연방 서부전선에서 독일군 진영에 침투해 활약하는 소련군 수색 대원들의 모습을 그리고 있다. 독일군의 저항으로 어려움을 겪던 소련군은 일군의 정찰대를 독일군 후방에 침투시켜 적을 공격하기로 한다. '즈베즈다'는 '별'이란 뜻의 러시아어로 영화에서 부대원들의 통신암호도 상용된다. 실화를 바탕으로 소련 부대원들의 영웅담을 생생한 화면과 감동적인 이야기로 전한다.
An entrepreneurial young man organizes an unusual cooperative. Its members are doubles of prominent political figures, each of whom left a noticeable mark in Russian history. Like the propaganda teams of the recent past, this team travels around the country. Everyone communicates with the people in accordance with their image, and often the audience perceives the double as its prototype - and reacts accordingly ...
Sergei and Tanya are in love with each other. Sergei is drafted into the marine corps and Tania waits for his return. Sergei's division is abandoned in favor of helping local residents in distress. During the operation, his armored personnel gets carried into the sea. His relatives receive a notice of his death. Tanya's loving childhood friend, a hockey player, helps her to cope with misfortune and she marries him. But it turned out that Sergei did not perish. He, together with a wounded friend he saved, are found on a deserted island after a long winter. Back home, Sergei learns that Tanya has married another. Unable to accept the loss of his beloved, Sergei dies; but this death is a symbolic and emotional one, not physical. Sergei continues to live a normal life without shock and strong distress, meets another girl, marries her, has a child. In the finale there is a spiritual rebirth of the hero.
In November, 1942, near the Volga, Stanlingrad is under siege of Commander Friederich Paulus and his 330,000 men. The Russian high command unleashes an operation to protect the Mishkova River to avoid that about four hundred tanks join Paulus' army. The Soviet artillery soldiers protect their position with their lives in a bloodshed with few survivors.
