Searching for an escape from an impoverished city life, a retired couple moves to an abandoned country house in the radioactive zone of Chernobyl. Twenty five years after the disaster, the husband is convinced the land is ready to be cultivated, his wife on the other hand is less sure. A fable of love, Half-Life explores the boundaries of commitment and fear.

In the center of the lyrical and dramatic narrative is the frontline fate of one of the millions of ordinary soldiers of the Great Patriotic War - sapper Fedor Chaklun and his four-legged assistant - a specially trained sheepdog named Rumba. With the help of Rumba Fedor discovers a mined section of the road and warns about it senior in rank - junior lieutenant Svetlana. But the girl, carried away by flirtation with the lieutenant colonel, forgets to block the road, and a Soviet tank explodes on the mine. Fyodor, in love with Svetlana, takes the blame...