It follows a platoon of German Army soldiers transferred to the Eastern Front of World War II, where they find themselves fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad.

It was preceded by the 1959 Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben (Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever?).

In August 1942, German soldiers enjoy leave in Cervo, Liguria, Italy, after fighting at the First Battle of El Alamein, where Unteroffizier Manfred "Rollo" Rohleder and Obergefreiter Fritz Reiser are introduced to Leutnant Hans von Witzland, their new platoon commander.

Witzland gets separated from the others and captures a female soldier named Irina; she offers to lead him to safety, but instead pushes him into the water and escapes.

Hauptmann Musk reassigns the penal battalion—which includes disgraced fellow officer Otto—to combat duty, after the men threaten to mutiny unless their crimes are pardoned.

Hauptmann Haller later orders von Witzland and his men to execute a group of unarmed civilians accused of sabotage, including Kolya.

They head to Pitomnik Airfield in hopes of catching a plane back to Germany, stealing medical tags from some dead bodies along the way to feign being wounded.

While the men recover a German supply drop, Haller appears and holds them at gunpoint, but is quickly subdued; he accidentally shoots G.G.

Haller pleads for his life, first trying to use his authority, then telling them about the supplies he is hoarding in a nearby house, before being executed by Otto.

In the house's cellar, they find shelves stocked full of food and liquor, and Irina tied to a bed.

As the rest of the men enjoy the luxuries, a deluded and dying Musk tries to rally them to rejoin the fighting.