Seventy year old constable Sergei Andropov is called to investigate 2 bodies found in a construction site while excavating. upon examing the bodies Sergei comes to the conclusion that the bodies are from the Great Patriotic war. Upon this realization Sergie once more lives his childhood in the ruins of Stalingrad and of the soldier he killed. June 1942. Conrad Zeitsler is a 18 year old tank commander driving through the Russian steppe to capture Stalingrad. Once the city is captured him and his brother Josef can go home in time to spend Christmas with their mother. Vasily Sarayev is a 17 year old submachine gunner whose goal is to become a hero of the Soviet Union by casting the Nazi invaders out of Mother Russia. His platoon and him are shoved onto a cattle train and sent off to the front with little to no training ready to die to protect the motherland. Sergei is seven once more and is playing commuists and fascists with the other boys in the apartment complex he lives in when he trips and falls face first into Tolstoy's turnip patch. Across the plot the old man is waving a gnarld cane at Sergei. Sergei jumps up and brushes the dirt from his pant when he hears Tolstoy shout. Quick as a flash Sergei run out of the turnip patch and back to the apartment behind him he can hear Tolstoy "I've seen you, Sergei Illyich Andropov. Don't think I haven't" Do you think you would survive if you were in Stalingrad during the war?