Yar is a place that keeps people, and they can't part with it. If they leave, they will die. The only one who wants to escape from the Yar is our main character Karev. But leaving the Yar, he thereby breaks with all traditional values, and unwittingly becomes the cause of the death of people dear to him...
A group Russian soldiers is send to an outpost to guard the area. They pass the day patroulling the area, while being shot at from the forest. They never know if the civillions are hostile or friendly to them.
September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set himself free. Ivan, a captain of the Soviet Army, arrested by the Front Secret Police 'Smersh', has a narrow escape. They are soldiers of the two enemy armies. A Lapp woman Anni gives a shelter to both of them at her farm. For Anni they are not enemies, but just men.