Two comrades and soldiers of the Red Army, Andrei Nekrasov (O. Yankovsky) and Ivan Karyakin (R. Bykov) were sent by their regimental commander (A. Papanov) on a reconnaissance mission to film the White Armyfortifications on the way into Crimea (Perekop). After filming, the engine on their airplane stalled and they were forced to land in unfriendly territory.
As the culmination of a series of misadventures, the friends were going to be executed, as spies by their own side. The Colonel appears in time to stop the firing squad.
The second part of the film narrates the assault on Perekop and the Red Army invasion of the Crimea.
The film also features Vladimir Vysotsky as Brusentsov, a cynical and disillusioned officer in Wrangel's Army. He shot Nekrasov down at the end of the film. Karyakin hums his friend's favorite song - "The bullet whizzed and aha!..". Vysotsky's character later shot himself during the Evacuation to Constantinople.
The film's focus is the friendship between two decidedly different characters. Nekrasov is intelligent and war-weary, while Karyakin is simple-minded, yet idealistic and energetic.
