Nikolai Kazantsev arrives at the mysterious estate of Count Vladimir Pazurkevich, a young man intending to study fine arts in Italy, but lacking the means to do so, he takes a chance on an adventure! Introducing himself as a professor, Kazantsev tries to pretend convincingly that he is studying the...
Just after the end of the WW II, Kirill Poletayev manages to escape from a train full of prisoners, which gets stuck in a snowdrift. After a strenuous escape through the winter forest, completely frozen and weakened, finally reaches his native village. This situation forces people to take a stand.
Interlocking narratives, told out of chronological order, about partisans in the Second World War who are a band of nihilistic marauders, roaming the countryside and dispensing what they see as justice to those they consider collaborators with the enemy.