The film tells the story of a young German, Gregor Hecker (Jaecki Schwarz), who fled the Nazis with his parents to Moscow and now, in early 1945, returns to Germany as a lieutenant in the Red Army.
[2] The film depicts the personal experiences of the director Konrad Wolf and of his friend Vladimir Gall in fictionalized form and deals with themes of the meaning of "homeland".
[3] On 16 April 1945, Gregor Hecker and his small squad follow in the wake of the 48th Army's westward advance from Brandenburg through the river Oder.
They arrive in Bernau, which is under occupation by Soviet armored personnel, where Hecker is quickly named commandant of the city.
In Sachsenhausen, Hecker and Sascha Ziganjuk (Alexey Eybozhenko) meet their leader, Wadim Gejman (Vasily Livanov).
In the camp, Hecker and other Soviet officers are shown by a former prisoner the full extent of Nazi atrocities, through the examples of the gas chambers and Genickschussanlage.
On 30 April 1945, Gejman receives the order to negotiate the handover of the Spandau Citadel and takes Hecker along as an interpreter.
The fortress commander, Colonel Lewerenz (Johannes Wieke), and his adjutant (Jürgen Hentsch) climb down a rope ladder to them.
On the 1st of May, after the success at Spandau, the good-humored driver Dsingis (Kalmursa Rachmanov) detours the slalom around wrecked trucks on the empty Autobahn.
A drunk Hecker falls from a ledge, and imagines hearing his mother's voice, berating him for doing everything too early, including smoking and drinking schnaps.
[5] Socialist Unity Party official Anton Ackermann forced Wolf to revise his screenplay because it depicted the Red Army as unprepared for the postwar occupation of Germany.