A vivid opening in color introduces a girl removing her motorcycle helmet as she camps with friends, but the scene quickly shifts to the brutal reality of summer 1942, somewhere behind the Soviet frontlines on the Eastern Front. In this war-torn landscape, a stubborn command issue lands a surprising assignment on Company Sergeant Major Vaskov: he must lead a group of young female anti-aircraft gunners stationed at a railway outpost far from the nearest front. The new duty puts him at odds with a unit he’s not used to directing, and friction flares up over daily routines, discipline, and the stresses of combat.
Rita Osyanina, [Irina Shevchuk], emerges quickly as a standout talent among the women, her skill proven when she shoots down an enemy aircraft and earns a decoration for her bravery. Her personal sacrifices become clear through color-filled flashbacks and conversations that reveal the stakes of her life near the front: she secretly ferries food and supplies back to her mother and her baby, keeping hope alive amid danger. The group’s dynamic is rich with individual backstories, weaving together resilience, fear, and a sense of duty that binds them in a fragile sisterhood.
One night, Rita, while carrying rations to her family, crosses paths with two German paratroopers. This encounter launches a risky mission that Vaskov reluctantly approves, selecting five volunteers to pursue the targets: Rita Osyanina, [Irina Shevchuk], Zhenya Komelkova, [Olga Ostroumova], Lisa Brichkina, [Elena Drapeko], Galya Chetverlak, [Ekaterina Markova], and Sonia Gurvich, [Irina Dolganova]. Their plan is audacious: traverse a marshy frontier and ambush the enemy along a path the soldiers believe the paratroopers must use. Yet the odds prove steeper than expected when they discover sixteen German paratroopers instead of two. To turn the odds in their favor, the group improvises a bold ruse—uprooting trees and lighting fires to simulate a mass of civilian refugees and force the Germans to rethink their route. The ruse almost fails, but Zhenya’s daring dive into a river convinces the paratroopers to veer off course, allowing Lisa to sprint back to base for reinforcements.
Left behind, the remaining trio within the forest prepares another route to avoid direct contact, slipping into guerrilla-style warfare against the encroaching enemy. The tension escalates as Sonia is killed by a knife and Galya succumbs to gunshot wounds, forcing Vaskov to improvise a new plan to shield the others. He creates a distraction by drawing the Germans away with gunfire, a tactic echoing his earlier maneuvers. A combat wound to his arm doesn’t stop him; he escapes, though he is haunted by visions of Lisa, who tells him that she failed because she moved too quickly and drowned in the marsh.
In a desperate reunion, Vaskov finds Rita and Zhenya, though the reunion is tinged by disobedience: Rita and Zhenya have disobeyed orders to retreat, choosing instead to stand their ground. Vaskov’s threat of a court-martial clashes with the women’s resolve to stay and support one another. As Rita lies wounded by shrapnel, she begs Zhenya to leave her behind and carry on, but Zhenya refuses to abandon her comrade. Rita asks Vaskov to protect her son in the neighboring village, a plea that weighs heavily on everyone. After a quiet, intimate moment of farewell, Rita asks for Vaskov’s protection for her child and, at her own request, allows him to leave with a promise to return. When he exposes a plan to blow a grenade and win their escape, he discovers that Rita has already taken a gun and chosen to end her own life rather than be captured or endure more pain.
With courage tempered by exhaustion, Vaskov returns to the cabin where the Germans rest and, armed with a knife, a single revolver round, and a grenade lacking a fuse, launches a decisive counterattack. He subdues a German soldier by stabbing, shoots another, and uses a feigned threat with the grenade to compel surrender. He then captures a submachine gun and, in a tense moment, holds the surviving Germans at bay. A radio message from the Soviet lines cools his fury and redirects his focus, and he ultimately escorts the three remaining enemy soldiers back toward Soviet territory. The surviving women who came to rescue the group soon reach the scene, finding Vaskov barely able to stand from exhaustion and relief mixing with sorrow.
The story jumps forward three decades, when Vaskov revisits the battlefield with an observing officer, an implied link to Rita’s son. The memory lingers as the girl from the opening scene—the future figure who will eventually bring a bouquet of flowers from a boyfriend—appears at a memorial dedicated to the five young women who died in that hidden corner of the war. She pauses, places the flowers at the marker, and, with the weight of history in her steps, pays her respects alongside the surviving veteran and the present-day witness to their sacrifice.
> Five girls... five young girls were here, only five, and you did not pass! You'll croak here, everyone will croak!.. I'll kill each of you with my own hands... with my own hands!
In this story of wartime grit and quiet heroism, courage is measured not only by battlefield victories but by the endurance to care for family, to protect one another, and to carry memories forward. The film blends intimate character studies with stark combat sequences, painting a textured portrait of a unit forged through shared danger and mutual reliance. The cast, including [Olga Ostroumova], [Ekaterina Markova], [Elena Drapeko], [Irina Dolganova], [Irina Shevchuk], [Andrey Martynov], and [Yuriy Sorokin], brings to life a group of women whose quiet strength and stubborn resolve illuminate the human cost of war and the enduring bonds that survive long after the last gun has fallen silent.
