Two proud fisherman families live on a very small island in Estonia. The two fishermen have always bore a grudge against each other. Their stubbornness and disobedience to German occupiers leads to dramatic events where staying alive is worse than death. Since it is impossible to escape public contempt, they have to decide how to redeem themselves.

The story of the war film is about paths of the Estonian Shooting Corps (formed by the Red Army) during the WW-2 and how the fight forms an usual man to a loyal soldier. Ideologic aspects of the movie are more hidden than in ordinary Soviet war films but they're still existing.