Tenth-grader Yura Nikitin, after learning about the death of his father, became a cadet at a military school. Once, during a break in classes, he and his friend accidentally came to visit a girl they had liked for a long time. Nikitin and Zoya fell in love with each other. Timid and tender was this feeling. Soon the cadets were sent to the front. Burned trees, war-scarred forests, destroyed cities flash in the train windows. Yura remembers his beloved, who never had time to say everything he wanted. And then there was the front, and Lieutenant Nikitin led the company in his first attack..