The book includes two stories and a story by our fellow countryman, writer Pyotr Salnikov. The fate of the main characters of these works develops differently. Denis Dontsov (the story “Burnt Gunpowder”) fights for his homeland during the Great Patriotic War and ends up in a prisoner of war camp, namesakes Nikolai Veshny and Nikolai Zimny go to the front from the same village, peasant Avdey, who raised his grandson Venka, does not suspect that very soon his pupil will find himself in a foreign land... All of them are scorched by the war and all of them will face difficult trials. The author makes an attempt to rethink the past and paints an epic picture of Russian life.