Zoya Vladimirovna Strelnikova, a famous operetta actress, quits the theater and gets a nanny in a military hospital. There she meets the wounded major Peter Nikolayevich Markov.

One of the anthology films about Soviet citizens resisting the Nazi invaders during World War II, the feature consists of two stories, one about a teenage woman telephone operator who sacrifices herself, the other about a farm girl tending a sick pig who deals with two paratroopers seeking shelter.

The first day of the war brings tragedy to a peasant woman, Pasha. Her husband and her toddler son die before her eyes. She and the other villagers leave to go into the woods. Pasha leads the villagers to fight some German troops. Coming out victories, the partisans become a feared opponent of the Germans, with the leadership of Comrade P.