제 2차 세계 대전 직후, ‘세상의 끝’이라 불리는 소련 외곽의 마을에 부임해 온 전쟁 영웅 이그낫은 독일인 아이를 키우는 러시아 엄마, 가족을 잃고 숲에서 숨어 살아온 독일 소녀를 만나게 된다. 소련군이 독일인들을 잡아가려 하자, 이그낫과 마을사람들은 숲속에 버려진 기차를 이용해 목숨을 건 대탈주를 감행한다.
Belorussia, summer 1942. The war has moved on, far off to the east. The life of a small town where the German authorities of the region have set themselves up is getting back to "normal". The Germans study Russian, flirt with the local girls, the women wash their clothes and feed them. They have to carry on somehow... But suddenly the teenage son of the film's heroine decides to run away to the partisans and blows up a German train so that they could accept him. He gets caught and the Germans have to execute him in order "to teach others a lesson". That's the order and it can't be disobeyed. The Germans know that this execution will bring an end to their peaceful lives. The local commandant understands this better than anyone as he is already involved in a close relationship with the boy's mother. But he can't ignore an order from his commanders...
When the hard-working bread-winner Katja and Hendrik the intellectual meet Saida, an illegal immigrant from Algeria, and accept to organize a "passport marriage" between her and Hendrik, they are caught up in a chain of events and feelings over which they have no control.
In the last winter of WWII a group of captive German soldiers is brought to a remote Russian village, where widows, a child and a crippled are the only ones left. This is a military drama about those, who can love and forgive.
