Set during the 1939–1940 Winter War, the film follows a group of young women from Leningrad who volunteer for service at the front. Working as nurses in hospitals and on the battlefield, they devote themselves to saving the lives of wounded soldiers, while also taking up arms alongside the men in combat. Through hardship and sacrifice, their courage forges bonds of friendship and love that endure amid the trials of war.

Woven around the daily lives of two children, nine-year-old Nastenka and five-year-old Katia, this is a story of the 17 months' siege of Leningrad and of the people and families shattered by the war, their homes bombed and destroyed, their lives in a constant anticipation of the advancing German army and air raids.