Mother Maria Skobtsova, a Russian nun, helps Jews and other people hated by the Gestapo during World War II. Eventually, the Gestapo finds out and takes her away to the Ravensbruk Concentration Camp.

A new construction manager, Zaitsev, arrives in a small town. Two of his former comrades from the Red Army work here: Glinka, the director of the paper factory, and Latsis, the head of the timber rafting operation. Zaitsev advocates for the rapid expansion of the paper factory and surrounds himself with a group of opportunists. However, despite their long-standing friendship, after a series of revelations, he is forced to leave the town.

As 1809 nears its end, Natasha attends her first ball, where Andrei falls in love with her with the intent of marriage. However, as her father demands they wait, the prince travels abroad, leaving Natasha in desperate longing. But she meets Anatol Kuragin and forgets Andrei. Part two of the four-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel.

The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.

The movie is set in the early 30s in a fictional capitalist country. The economic crisis throws three friends - young female workers - out on the street. Their dreams of a prosperous life are shattered, and each begins her own difficult journey.

Archive footage from the 1920s juxtaposed against a film-within-a-film parodying the melodramatic excesses of popular cinema of the day.