A years-long struggle of the Soviet people against the German war machine is shown from the point of view of Stalin and from the point of view of an ordinary soldier and his beloved girl.

Surrounded by a few party officials, Alexei Ivanov, a Stakhanovite smelter, is decorated by Stalin. The "Little Father of the Peoples" takes this opportunity to invoke threats of war. One day, war indeed breaks out. Bombs fall on the field where Alexei finds himself in the company of the schoolmistress Natacha, his fiancée. Alexei joins the Red Army and soon becomes a sergeant. Fighting rages and German troops advance. Natacha is arrested and deported. But the tide turns decisively with the German defeat at Stalingrad. Now the major offensive against Hitler can begin.—Guy Bellinger