When the enemy army was on the outskirts of Stalingrad, a young girl Serafima, torn from her family, was forced to adapt to a new reality, being evacuated in Kuibyshev at a defense plant. Seraphim has to work day and night at the machine along with other schoolchildren like herself. When she turned 17, life confronts her with a difficult choice, personal freedom or the life of a person who once was able to save her from death.