The war is ending. In the Belarusian village of Pokolyubichi, liberated from the Germans, there are only women and old people, so teenagers have to work on an equal basis with adults. The boys Sanka and Ivan are constantly drawn to feats. When there were rumors in the village that some kind of ghoul was hiding in the forest, the guys decided to catch him and become famous for it. It's good that the district police officer came to their aid in time. After all, Afonka, a former policeman armed with a German machine gun, turned out to be a ghoul...

After a long prison sentence, former Nazi collaborator Shishkovich returns to the village, guilty of the deaths of his fellow villagers. Ivan, whose sister and mother were killed, cannot calmly accept his return.