The villagers dreamed of the happy days to come, but the war came and the men went to defend their land.

Two Russian soldiers, one battle-seasoned and the other barely into his boots and uniform, are taken prisoner by an anxious Islamic father from a remote village hoping to trade them for his captured son.

Pre-Petrine Russia, Semyon Lazarev, one of the instigators of the “Copper Riot”, is forced to flee, as a result of which he ends up in the army of the leader of the peasant uprising Stepan Razin.