After witnessing his mother being shot by the invading German troops, sixteen-year-old Artūrs, together with his father, decides to enlist in the national Latvian Riflemen battalions of the Imperial Russian Army in hopes of getting revenge and finding glory. Artūrs goes on to fight in World War I on the Eastern Front, where he loses his father and brother and quickly becomes disillusioned. Eventually, Artūrs returns to his newly-proclaimed country to fight in the Latvian War of Independence and start everything from scratch.