December 30, 1941. In Vyazma ('Vyazemsky cauldron') there is a small group of Soviet soldiers, who are trying to reach their own comrades after having escaped a Nazi encirclement. In the movie they are suddenly caught in an unequal battle with a special unit of the Wehrmacht. None of these brave people was born a hero but they became heroes and were helped in their battle by the Red Ghost. The myth of the red ghost of the movie is about a lone hero who picks off Nazi soldiers one by one. He seems to be able to vanish almost magically into the forests and even to come back from the dead.