It tells the story of Franz, a Waffen-SS soldier who deserts, and Polina, a Belarusian woman whose village is razed and people massacred.

Franz kills a German soldier for his uniform and infiltrates a nearby village to obtain an antibiotic to treat Polina's wound.

The refugees are sympathetic with the exception of a small boy, the sole survivor of a family that was lured back to the village by the seemingly humane behavior of the Waffen-SS.

He has a gun, bought with his father's watch, and his adoptive mother and sister are unable to dissuade him from using it on Franz.

After this rescue Franz is at the river bank retrieving water for pregnant Polina when the boy appears with the gun.