German artist Adolf Menzel's unfinished painting Kircheninneres comes to life in a vision of a post-apocalyptic world where modern society is left in ruins and the only way to survive is to dominate. The plot of the film focuses on two gangs of young men fighting over a church that has been transformed into a shelter. The protagonist, a member of one of the gangs, tries to navigate between the desire to survive and his humanity. He seeks to protect the one he loves, he does not want to betray his friends, and therefore he does not withdraw from the fight. When the gangs clash in a brutal battle, the wounded hero is rescued by his beloved at the risk of his own life. The hero's friends win the battle, but instead of joyful bells, the thunder of fighter jets rings out, blending in with the brushstrokes of the unfinished painting. The lovers fail to protect each other from their inevitable fate.

Radio Free Europe, BBC, and Voice of America can only rarely get through the Iron Curtain and Soviet mufflers to Lithuania, a country torn by a war between the local resistance movement and the Soviet regime that is forced onto Lithuanian people by bayonets of the Russian army. Everybody who tries to resist the Soviet rule is either terrorized or executed or exiled to Siberia. He is one of the local high-school students who witness the local armed resistance to the Soviet occupation and ultimately decide to join it by taking a gun into their hands. He collects documents and all possible kinds of evidence that prove daunting crimes of the Kremlin. He soon becomes a legend among his peers. To girls, he is John Wayne the Hollywood Icon. Guys see him as an insurmountable obstacle and an invincible rival in matters of love.

When Echo, who longs for his older brother's approval, is allowed to join a risky ambush against the Soviet forces, he makes a mistake that costs him everything.

A Latvian tragicomedy about a young artist who bears witness to the dramatic political upheavals of the WWII era. As brutal regimes come and go, his country, his village, his people, and even his heart are swept up in the inexorable currents of history.