The story takes place in May 1942. The commander of the railway escort, Fedot Evgrafich Vaskov, asks the authorities to send him “non-drinking” soldiers, since everyone who comes to him on the road, feeling the calm there, soon begins to “drink and walk.” Fedot Evgrafich himself does not accept such behavior. Finally, the bosses send him fighters, who really can not be afraid that they will start drinking – a female anti-aircraft platoon. The commander of this unusual platoon is Rita Osyanina, who simply hates the Germans, because of them she became a widow just the day after the war began. She has a son Albert, who lives with her mother. And when it came to the question that someone had to be transferred from the front line to the command of Vaskov, Rita herself asked to transfer her platoon there, since the crossing is next to the city where her son and mother live. The character of Rita is harsh, what all the girls feel from her platoon. Soon a platoon
is sent a new one – Zhenya Kamelkova. Zhenya is a very beautiful and cheerful girl, she approaches Rita, helping to thaw her soul. Rita often secretly goes to the city to see relatives. Once, making her way through the forest in the direction of the road trip, she encounters two Germans in the forest, which she tells Vaska about. He reports everything “upstairs” and receives an order to detain the Germans. Vaska gathers a detachment of five girls – Rita, Zhenya, Sonya Gurvich, Lisa Bricchina and Gali Chetvertak. He understands that the Germans are going to the Kirov railway, and decides to go to the Sinyukhina ridge, where the only way to the railway crossing passes, in a short way – straight through the swamp. He is the first to follow the path, which is well known, the girls follow him. They get to the Sinyukhina ridge and are preparing to meet the Germans. When the Germans appeared, Vaska sees that they are not two, but sixteen. Therefore, he decides to send Lisa Brickin for reinforcements – he will not cope with so many Germans with five girls. In the meantime, Lisa runs to the crossing,
Vaska decides to deceive the Germans – he and the girls portray themselves as loggers. The Germans, hearing that right before them someone is working in the forest, decide to go the other way. Vaska vainly waiting for help – Lisa, returning to the crossing, stumbled on the trail and drowned in the swamp. Vaska and the girls decide to move to another place, but on the Sinyukhina Ridge Vaskov forgets his pouch, and Sonya proposes to bring it. In a hurry, she does not notice the two Germans emerging from the forest, and dies. These Germans are killed by Vaska and Zhenya. They bury Sonya. The Germans are already approaching Vaskov and his detachment, Vaska and the girls are starting to shoot. The Germans do not see them and therefore retreat, because they do not know how many people are carrying fire on them. Vaska, along with Galya, goes into reconnaissance. But Galya is very frightened, and at the moment when the Germans pass next to them, her nerves can not stand, and she jumps out of the ambush. The Germans see it and shoot it at point-blank range. Vaska decides to take the Germans away from other girls. He is wounded in the arm, but he manages to reach the island in the middle of the swamp. There he sees Lisa’s skirt in the marsh and a terrible truth comes to him – there is no need to wait for reinforcements. He returns to the girls. Together they are going to take the fight. During the battle Rita gets injured, Vaska takes her to a safe place, at this time the Germans are killing Zhenya, distracting them from Vaska and wounded Rita. Rita tells Vaska about her son and asks him to take care of him. She herself, realizing that her wound was fatal, and not wanting Vaska to be distracted by her at this moment, shoots herself. Vaska bury Zhenya and Rita and is looking for the remaining five Germans. He finds them in the forest lodge, kills one, and takes the others captive. The four Germans themselves link each other, since they do not even admit that Vaska is alone in the forest. He leads them through the forest and loses consciousness just at the moment when Russian soldiers come to meet him. The story ends with the fact that many years later, a marble slab is brought to the grave where Rita is buried. They brought her a gray-haired old man without a hand and a captain named Albert Fedotovich. Vaska bury Zhenya and Rita and is looking for the remaining five Germans. He finds them in the forest lodge, kills one, and takes the others captive. The four Germans themselves link each other, since they do not even admit that Vaska is alone in the forest. He leads them through the forest and loses consciousness just at the moment when Russian soldiers come to meet him. The story ends with the fact that many years later, a marble slab is brought to the grave where Rita is buried. They brought her a gray-haired old man without a hand and a captain named Albert Fedotovich. Vaska bury Zhenya and Rita and is looking for the remaining five Germans. He finds them in the forest lodge, kills one, and takes the others captive. The four Germans themselves link each other, since they do not even admit that Vaska is alone in the forest. He leads them through the forest and loses consciousness just at the moment when Russian soldiers come to meet him. The story ends with the fact that many years later, a marble slab is brought to the grave where Rita is buried. They brought her a gray-haired old man without a hand and a captain named Albert Fedotovich. The story ends with the fact that many years later, a marble slab is brought to the grave where Rita is buried. They brought her a gray-haired old man without a hand and a captain named Albert Fedotovich. The story ends with the fact that many years later, a marble slab is brought to the grave where Rita is buried. They brought her a gray-haired old man without a hand and a captain named Albert Fedotovich.
