In the 1940s, three 17-year-old boys (Yevgeni Steblov, Mikhail Kononov, Natalya Bogonova) celebrate their summer holiday in a sleepy, small town on the Russian coast, uninterested and unaware of the war that rages on around them. When the boys are offered spots in the military academy, they have to accept or risk being labeled enemies of the state. As they prepare to leave their hometown, the boys worry they'll be sent to the front, never to see their families, friends or girlfriends again.