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
Yuriy Nikulin
Georgi Burkov
Ivan Lapikov
Nikolai Gubenko
Nikolay Volkov
Nonna Mordyukova
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina
Andrei Rostotsky
Tatyana Bozhok
Mykola Shutko
Andrei Popov
Evgeniy Samoylov
Irina Skobtseva
Angelina Stepanova
Danylo Ilchenko
Aleksey Vanin
Gennady Safronov
Boris Nikiforov
Anatoli Pereverzev
Vitaliy Leonov
Mikhail Chigaryov
Stanislav Borodokin
Leonid Trutnev
Pyotr Merkuryev
Yermakhmad Aralev
Aleksandr Konyashin
Igor E. Kuznetsov
Vladimir Myshkin
Gennadi Nenashev
Lev Pavlov
Nikolay Petrenko
Khoshim Rakhimov
Viktor Volkov
Kolya Yefremov
Yunus Yusupov
Igor Efimov
Natalya Gundareva
Nikolay Gorlov