In July 1942, in the Second World War, the rearguard of the Russian army protects the bridgehead of the Don River against the German army while the retreating Russian troops cross the bridge. While they move back to the Russian territory through the countryside, the soldiers show their companionship, sentiments, fears and heroism to defend their motherland.
Vasiliy Shukshin
Vyacheslav Tikhonov
Sergey Bondarchuk
Georgi Burkov
Yuriy Nikulin
Ivan Lapikov
Nikolai Gubenko
Andrei Rostotsky
Nikolay Volkov
Mykola Shutko
Evgeniy Samoylov
Nonna Mordyukova
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
Angelina Stepanova
Irina Skobtseva
Tatyana Bozhok
Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina
Danylo Ilchenko
Aleksey Vanin
Nikolay Gorlov
Gennady Safronov
Boris Nikiforov
Vitaliy Leonov
Aleksandr Konyashin
Lev Pavlov
Leonid Trutnev
Mikhail Chigaryov
Anatoli Pereverzev
Pyotr Merkuryev
Stanislav Borodokin
V. Kranchev
Yunus Yusupov
A. Kolesnikov
Khoshim Rakhimov
V. Nabatov
Gennadi Nenashev
Vladimir Myshkin
Yermakhmad Aralev
V. Alekseev
Nikolay Petrenko
Igor E. Kuznetsov
Viktor Volkov
E. Primak
M. Kazmin
Valentin Sukharev
Kolya Yefremov
Anvar Zaripov
Yuri Kazavchinsky
Yuriy Solovyov
Igor Efimov
Natalya Gundareva
Andrei Popov