1943, the Great Patriotic War, territory of Belarus. The 16-year-old boy Flera, having dug out a carbine among scraps of barbed wire, rusty machine-gun belts and shot-through helmets, goes into the forest to join the ranks of the partisans.
This film, like no other, shows the tragedy of a child on a battlefield. At the beginning of the picture Flera is just a teenager. But In the end, having gone through horror and fear, child becomes an adult, frighteningly adult - his face is distorted by senile wrinkles, and there is no room for love in his soul...