In 1943, two Belarusians boys dig in a sand field looking for abandoned rifles in order to join the Soviet partisan forces. Their village elder warns them not to dig up the weapons as it will arouse the suspicions of the Germans. One of the boys, Flyora, finds an SVT-40 rifle, though the both of them are seen by an Fw 189 flying overhead. The next day, partisans arrive at Flyora's house to conscription him. Flyora becomes a low-rank militiaman and is ordered to perform menial tasks. When the partisans are ready to move on, an old partisan says that he wants to stay behind because his boots are falling apart. The partisan commander, Kosach, orders the old man to swap boots with Flyora and for Flyora to remain behind at the camp. Bitterly disappointed, Flyora walks into the forest weeping and meets Glasha, a young girl working as a nurse in the camp, and the two bond before the camp is suddenly attacked by Fallschirmjäger and dive bombers. Flyora is partially deafened from explosions before the two hide in the forest to avoid the German soldiers. Flyora and Glasha travel to his village, only to find his home deserted and covered in flies. Denying that his family is dead, Flyora believes that they are hiding on a nearby island across a bog. As they run from the village in the direction of the bogland, Glasha glances across her shoulder, seeing a pile of executed villagers' bodies stacked behind a house, but does not alert Flyora. The two become hysterical after wading through the bog, where Glasha then screams at Flyora that his family are actually dead in the village. They are soon met by Roubej, a partisan fighter, who takes them to a large group of villagers who have fled the Germans. Flyora sees the village elder, badly burnt by the Germans, who tells him that he witnessed his family's execution and that he should not have dug up the rifles. Flyora accepts that his family is dead and blames himself for the tragedy.