May 1942. Countryside in Russia. There is a war with fascist Germany. He is thirty two years old. He has only four classes of education. Vaskov was married, but his wife fled with a regimental veterinarian, and his son soon died.
It’s calm on the road. Soldiers arrive here, look around, and then begin to "drink and walk." Vaskov stubbornly writes reports, and, in the end, they send him a platoon of "non-drinker" fighters - girls anti-aircraft gunners. At first, the girls chuckled at Vaskov, but he does not know how to deal with them. The commander of the first squad is Rita Osyanina. Rita's husband died on the second day of the war. She sent her son Albert to her parents. Soon, Rita fell into a regimental anti-aircraft school. With the death of her husband, she learned to hate the Germans “quietly and mercilessly” and was severe with the girls from her unit.
The Germans kill the carrier, instead send Zhenya Komelkova, a slender red-haired beauty. In front of Zhenya's eyes, a year ago the Germans shot her loved ones. After their death, Zhenya crossed the front. She picked it up, defended it “and not only took advantage of defenselessness - Colonel Luzhin stuck to it”. He was a family man, and the military authorities, learning about this, took the colonel “into circulation”, and sent Zhenya “to a good team”. Despite everything, Zhenya is "sociable and mischievous."Her fate immediately "crosses out Ritin's exclusivity." Eugene and Rita converge, and the latter "thaws."
When it comes to transferring from the front to the front, Rita is encouraged and requests to send her unit. The exit is located near the city where her mother and son live. At night, secretly Rita runs to the city, carries her groceries. One day, returning at dawn, Rita sees two Germans in the forest. She wakes Vaskov. He receives an order from the authorities to "catch" the Germans. Vaskov calculates that the Germans route lies on the Kirov Railway. The foreman decides to take the short route through the swamps to the Sinyukhina ridge, stretching between two lakes, along which you can only reach the railway, and wait for the Germans there - they will probably go by the district route. Vaskov takes Rita, Zhenya, Lisa Brichkina, Sonya Gurvich and Galya Chetvertak with him.
Lisa from the Bryansk region, she is the daughter of a forester. Five years she took care of a terminally ill mother, because of this she could not finish school. The visiting hunter, who awakened his first love in Lisa, promised to help her enter the technical school. But the war began, Lisa got into the anti-aircraft unit. Lisa likes the foreman of the Vaskov.
Sonia Gurvich from Minsk. Her father was a district doctor, they had a large and friendly family. She herself studied for a year at Moscow University, she knows German. The lecturer, Sonya's first love, with whom they spent only one unforgettable evening in the culture park, volunteered for the front.
Galya Chetvertak grew up in an orphanage. There she was “overtaken” by first love. After the orphanage, Galya got into the library college.The war found her in her third year.
The path to Lake Vop lies through the swamps. Vaskov leads the girls along a well-known path, on both sides of which there is a quagmire. The soldiers safely reach the lake and, hiding on the Sinyukhin ridge, are waiting for the Germans. Those appear on the lake only the next morning. There are not two of them, but sixteen. While the Germans have about three hours to go to Vaskov and the girls, the foreman sends Liza Brichkin back to the crossing - to report on a change in the situation. But Lisa, crossing the swamp, stumbles and drowns. Nobody knows about this, and everyone is waiting for help. Until then, the girls decide to mislead the Germans. They depict lumberjacks, shouting loudly, Vaskov fells trees.
The Germans are retreating to Lake Legont, not daring to go along the Sinyukhin ridge, on which, as they think, someone is felling a forest. Vaskov with the girls moves to a new place. In the same place, he left his pouch, and Sonya Gurvich volunteers to bring it. In a hurry, she stumbles upon two Germans who kill her. Vaskov and Zhenya kill these Germans. Sonia is buried.
Soon, the soldiers see the rest of the Germans approaching them. Hiding behind bushes and boulders, they shoot first, the Germans retreat, fearing an invisible enemy. Zhenya and Rita accuse Galya of cowardice, but Vaskov defends her and takes her with him for intelligence for “educational purposes”. But Vaskov does not suspect what trail in the soul of Gali Sonin left death. She is scared to horror and at the most crucial moment gives herself out, and the Germans kill her.
Fedot Evgrafych takes the Germans upon himself in order to lead them away from Zhenya and Rita.He is wounded in the arm. But he manages to leave and get to the island in a swamp. In the water, he notices Lisa's skirt and realizes that help will not come. Vaskov finds a place where the Germans stopped to rest, kills one of them and goes to look for the girls. They are getting ready to take the last fight. Germans appear. In an unequal battle, Vaskov and girls kill several Germans. Rita is mortally wounded, and while Vaskov drags her to a safe place, the Germans kill Zhenya. Rita asks Vaskov to take care of her son and shoots herself in the temple. Vaskov buries Zhenya and Rita. After that, he goes to the forest hut, where the five Germans who survived are sleeping. Vaskov kills one of them on the spot, and captures four of them. They themselves tie each other with straps, because they do not believe that Vaskov is "many miles alone." He loses consciousness from pain only when his own Russians are coming towards him.
Many years later, a gray-haired, stocky old man without a hand and a captain-rocketer, whose name is Albert Fedotych, will bring a marble slab to Rita’s grave.
