Bloody summer of 1942. Having broken through the front, German troops rush to the Volga and Stalingrad. The defeated units of the Red Army are rolling back to the east. Stalin’s merciless order No. 227 “Not a step back!” has already been published, the first penal battalions have already been created, and the barrier detachments are obliged to “exterminate alarmists and cowards on the spot,” shooting them without trial. When you have to choose between your own and a German bullet, between a penal company and captivity - there is only one way out: do not retreat! To not give up! stand to death, atonement for other people's mistakes and sins with your own blood... A new novel about the bloodiest battles of 1942! The cruel “trench truth” of the Great Patriotic War!