Matrena Bystrova’s husband and eldest son Stepan die at the front and it is time for her junior son Mitya to go to the front too. When leaving he was badly injured after the bombing and Matrena took him furtively back home. That is how Mitya becomes a defector. They live together avoiding everybody. The war finishes and all of a sudden Stepan comes back home. Matrena was afraid that he would find out the truth about Mitya. She sends Stepan away. But it is difficult to live such a life and finally Mitya goes to militia to confess everything.