- A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the German invasion of June 1941.
- It's June, 1941 in a farming cooperative in the Soviet Socialist Republic of the Ukraine. Although the citizens of the cooperative hear about the atrocities of the war on their radios, they are on the most part not yet directly affected by it. It's the end of the school year, and some of the older youth are excited about their futures. Beyond that, a small group of those youth are looking most forward to their imminent vacation to Kiev, where they are planning to hike for the four or five days it takes to get there above their planned three days in the city itself. They include: Damian Terasa Simonov, who finished top of his class including getting a scholarship to study at the State University of Kiev in the fall; his girlfriend, Marina Pavlov, the two who will be separated for the year as she finishes her schooling and who plan eventually to reunite in Kiev not only for Marina to go to university as well but for the two to get married; Kolya Simonov, Damian's older, more worldly brother who is a junior officer in the Soviet air corps; Clavdia Kurin, an old fashioned type of girl on who Kolya is sweet; and Grisha Kurin, Clavdia's younger brother. Things change when the Germans invade the Soviet Union - including the village of the cooperative - first with air strikes then ground troops. While some of the villagers form a guerrilla army hidden in the woods, they led by Kolya and Damian's father, Boris Stepanich Simonov, Kolya, Damian, Marina, Clavdia, Grisha, and fellow villager, the elderly Karp, are caught between Kiev and the village, all trying to make their way back to the village, except Kolya who must join his regiment at the airfield. Their journey becomes more important to the war effort upon their encounter with someone else on the road. Back in the village, the people who may end up being the most conflicted are: Marina's mother, Sophia Pavlov, who will probably be the primary target of the Germans as the de facto head of the cooperative, with Marina's father, Rodion Pavlov, having joined the ranks of the guerrillas; and Clavdia and Grisha's grandfather, Dr. Pavel Grigorich Kurin, who as a doctor has vowed to save lives, and who may be asked to save the lives of wounded German soldiers, all the while while the Germans in similar circumstances have bled the children of villages to their deaths all in the name of providing blood plasma to the wounded soldiers.—Huggo
- In a peaceful Ukrainian village, the school year is just ending in June 1941. Five young friends set out for a walking trip to Kiev, but their travels are brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the German assault on the Soviet Union. When the village itself is attacked and occupied, most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit. The others resist the Germans as well as possible, but soon the village is placed under the command of a German doctor who begins using the town's children as a source of constant blood transfusions for wounded German soldiers. Meanwhile, the small group of young persons tries desperately to take a supply of firearms to the guerrillas.—Snow Leopard
- In June 1941, in the small Russian farming village of North Star, pig farmer Karp briefly visits the home of Dr. Kurin, his cousin Anna and her children Clavdia and Grisha. Later, Karp chats with teenager Damian, who is enthusiastic about the next day's planned walking trip into the city of Kiev with Clavdia, Grisha, Damian's girl friend Marina and his older brother Kolya, an air pilot on leave.
At Marina's home, her little sister Olga and parents, Rodion and Sophia, discuss that evening's plans for the village feast.
Meanwhile, at Damian's home, his parents, Boris and Nadya, and Kolya are disturbed to hear news over the radio of German troop movements within Poland and the recent bombing of London. That evening the entire village takes part in unloading the supply train and celebrates the season in song and dance.
The next morning the young people set out in high spirits on their hike to Kiev and soon meet up with Karp, who offers them a ride on his cart. They join a long line of carts headed for the city, but soon Karp and Kolya hear a distinctive sound, and when Kolya realizes it is the buzz of aircraft, he stops the caravan and tries to get everyone into the ditch as bombs rain down on them. After the planes pass over, the hikers discover several people have been killed and their own cart destroyed.
In North Star, the villagers are going about their daily routine when the German dive bombers abruptly attack, and Sophia watches with horror as Olga is caught in the strafing gunfire. As the planes depart, the village radio announces that the Germans have invaded Russia and the two countries are now officially at war. Boris, the village leader, gathers the survivors together and declares that the men must depart for the hills to take up guerrilla activities and the women and older people must remain behind to burn the village before the German army arrives.
Rodion gives the village the oath of guerrillas before the men ride away. Boris then goes to the nearest army post to retrieve munitions for the guerrillas, but on his return he is strafed by another wave of planes. His truck turns over near where Damian, Kolya and the others are regrouping. Before dying, Boris instructs his sons to deliver the munitions to the guerrillas or North Star will be lost. After burying his father, Kolya helps load the gun supply onto two wagons, then departs to rejoin his air group.
A village scout on horseback sees the advancing German army and reports to the women, who begin burning their houses. The Germans soon arrive in North Star and shoot several villagers to stop the burning, then question the survivors about Rodion's whereabouts. When none of the villagers respond, the soldiers torture Sophia, prompting Kurin to protest to the medical officer, Colonel von Harden, who explains that there are many unpleasant German policies that must be acted upon.
As night falls, the hikers rest by the roadside, and as German scouts drive by, Grisha's dog darts out barking and three soldiers are dispatched to investigate. Damian and Karp send the others to harness the horses while they ambush the German soldiers and set off again.
Early the next morning an exhausted Kolya is on his fourth bombing run with a novice pilot, who decides to strafe a German armored division, but the plane is shot up and the pilot and co-pilot killed, forcing Kolya to take over. Realizing the plane is too damaged to land, Kolya crashes it into the tank line. Meanwhile, in North Star, the Germans have converted one remaining building into a hospital, where they force the village children to make blood transfusions for their wounded soldiers. Kurin, watching von Harden's cold efficiency, is bitterly shocked and attempts to save a young boy, who later dies in his arms. He takes the child's body to his father in the guerrilla hideout.
Out in the forest, the hikers realize that the only route into North Star is across the road and they must cause a diversion to halt the German transport. Damian volunteers and, unknown to him, Clavdia follows, determined to overcome her fear. Both successfully bring the transport to a halt, allowing the carts to dash across further up the road, but when the Germans fire on the fleeing youths, Clavdia is mortally wounded. Damian is stunned by an exploding grenade and when he comes to, discovers he has been blinded.
When Damian and Clavdia fail to return to the carts, Marina insists on looking for them, and she and Karp soon find the distraught Damian. Incensed by the murder of the village children who died as a result of the blood transfusions, the guerrillas decide they can no longer wait for the munitions and must attack. Rodion and a handful of guerrillas slip into North Star undetected and into a warehouse that stores barrels of gasoline, which they silently pour into the river and then ignite with grenades. As the guerrillas storm the town on horseback, armed only with clubs, the weary hikers reach the edge of town with the gun carts. A sentry rushes them into town, where the guerrillas immediately arm themselves and continue their attack.
At the hospital Kurin berates von Harden for claiming to despise those he nevertheless serves, then kills him. Later, after driving the Germans out, the surviving villagers leave the smoking remains of North Star, vowing to make this the last war and to fight for a free world.
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