In 1942, a young Lieutenant is serving as a dispatch rider, carrying orders from army headquarters to outlying units. He and other riders pause at a village, which comes under enemy attack. Confused and reeling from the sudden violence, he fails to find a unit under attack, which is surrounded and wiped out. He is arrested, stripped of rank, and quickly sentenced to death by firing squad. He tries to appeal to his superiors, but is thrown into a dugout prison, guarded by a central Asian soldier. He narrowly escapes the firing squad when the Germans overrun the base, and he flees with his very...