The attack failed. The Germans met the Red Army infantry chains with heavy machine-gun fire. Recruit Yegor Shchukin survived miraculously - he was overwhelmed with the bodies of his dead comrades. With the onset of darkness, wounded, he still managed to return to his people. Later, in the hospital, he was tormented for a long time by the nightmare of the first battle... There, in a hospital bed, he met the experienced intelligence officer Nikolai. He suggested to the young infantryman that his place was in reconnaissance. Only there can you become a real hero. After some thought, Yegor decided to take this step, which turned his entire future destiny as a soldier upside down...