Prakticheski vse uvereny chto porazhenie v voyne neminuemo, vrag vot-vot prob'etsya cherez oboronitel'nuyu liniyu, forsiruet Enisey, a dal'she ego uzhe prakticheski nichego ne smozhet sderzhat', razve chto tol'ko speshno vozvodimaya oboronitel'naya liniya v gorakh Urala. Uveren v porazhenii i Vadim Kulikov, a potomu sovershaet ocherednuyu popytku dezertirovat', no neudachno. On popadaet v ruki osobogo otdela... I byt' by emu rasstrelyannym, no situatsiya na fronte stol' plachevna, chto ego prigovarivayut k sluzhbe v shtrafbate, otkuda mozhno sbezhat' tol'ko vpered nogami.