The film takes place in the summer of 2000, during the Chechen War. Two Russian soldiers are instructed to call for help for the army column that fell under fire and left unattended. During the assignment, they take a prisoner of the Chechen youth Jamal. Apparently unadapted for the burdens of war, the young man evokes sympathy from the elder of the soldiers, Rubakhin. As a result of a failed exchange of prisoners of war in a Chechen village, soldiers are forced to hide in thickets surrounded by companies of militants seeking Jamal, and Rubakhin is forced to strangle a Chechen boy to stop his attempts to attract attention.