September 1943: His battalion overrun by the Red Army, Corporal Hans Helmut Dietrich leads the exhausted survivors of his platoon through partisan-infested swamps in a desperate bid to regain friendly lines, only to be thrown into the next hopeless battle to stem the ever advancing Soviet Juggernaut. Meanwhile, the front continues to disintegrate all around the German invaders... A beautiful and enigmatic Soviet partisan, Nikolina Volcovich, is suspected of spying for the Germans. Hunted by the notorious NKVD -- the forerunner for the later KGB -- she is captured in woods outside the embattled city of Smolensk by Dietrich and his men. When it is discovered she double-crossed her Nazi boss, a squad of SS killers is sent to find her. Repulsed by SS atrocities and enchanted with his comely prisoner, Dietrich resolves to save her from her pursuers, both Russian and German. Will he succeed?