Trapped between the warring forces of Nazi Germany and the Red Army, the Cossack people of the Don find themselves caught up in a fight for their lives and for their culture. Seen through the eyes of three disparate people, refugees and soldiers flee across Central Europe in a journey through horror, courage and despair - against this background is Katja's hopeless search for her brother, lost at the start of the war, while Mikhail, a young Cossack officer, just wants to kill Bolsheviks. And then there is Andrei, the veteran who only wants to survive. As war draws to an end their stories come...