1944. German soldier Walter Proska is about to return to the Eastern Front when his train is blown up by his love interest, the partisan Wanda. Together with a scattered bunch of fellow soldiers, cut off from the front, he awaits certain death while his commanding officer, Willi Stehauf, issues ever more senseless and inhumane orders. Proska's encounter with a young Polish woman fighting as a partisan and his friendship with his comrade Kürschner increasingly makes him doubt his oath of allegiance. As the Red Army draws closer, Proska becomes a prisoner of war and the only way he can save himself is by defecting to the enemy.