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.
Based on the novel by Vladimir Orlov "Salty Watermelon".
About the youth team of builders laying in the taiga railway Abakan-Tayshet. In the taiga, on the site of the future route, the youth team of Nikolai Bondarenko works. The people in the brigade are very different: the educated muscovite Vitaly, the resourceful Boris, the scribe and the romantic "Bukvar", but everyone lives together. They dream of a future route that will open the way to the Sayan Mountains.
