Polina Markelova

Moscow, 1902. The famous director Konstantin Stanislavsky, in search of inspiration for staging a new play, decides to get acquainted with the life of the city "bottom". He turns to Vladimir Gilyarovsky, a recognized expert on the Moscow slums, for help.

In 1939, Major Ivan Rosly, at the behest of ill-wishers, finds himself in the thick of the Soviet-Finnish War. But it is his unit that breaks through the impregnable Mannerheim Line, which becomes the most important stage of the future victory. In spite of everyone, Rosly returns from that war as a Hero of the Soviet Union with the rank of colonel. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he is surrounded, but leads thousands of Soviet soldiers to their own.