A "Hitlerjugend" kind of story, set in the Soviet Union during the Second World War, based on a fictitious story from the eponymous book by Vladimir Kunin.

Arriving from all over the Eastern Bloc, the men who loiter around the Gare du Nord train station in Paris are scraping by however they can, forming gangs for support and protection, ever fearful of being caught by the police and deported. When the middle-aged, bourgeois Daniel approaches a boyishly handsome Ukrainian who calls himself Marek for a date, he learns the young man is willing to do anything for some cash.

The life of Ukrainian-Soviet avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov inspires three stories about creation and individualism in the face of state power, set against the Great Purge of the 1930s and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Spring 1941. The peaceful life of three friends, two Sergeys and Ekaterina, from a small village in Kuban is interrupted by a sudden declaration of war and the landing of fascists in the Caucasus. The guys in love with Ekaterina volunteer to join the partisans, and she stays in the village and asks them to return quickly. Not far from these places, the Germans organize a warehouse with ammunition. The commander of the partisan detachment receives an order to destroy the enemy and blow up the warehouse. Two Sergeys are sent on a dangerous mission.

Boys of fourteen end up in the Suvorov School, some thanks to family tradition, some for the sake of high ideals, and some not even of their own free will. Having entered Suvorovskoe, the guys at first do not imagine the full extent of the load, and most importantly, the responsibility that will have a profound impact on their subsequent lives.