At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, young tank commander Nikolai Ivushkin takes part in a hopeless battle against the unit of SS officer Klaus Jäger. Miraculously surviving, Ivushkin is taken prisoner for three long years. When the war reaches an irreversible turning point and the threat approaches the borders of the Third Reich, the German command prepares to deliver a decisive counterstrike against Soviet tanks. Klaus Jäger proposes training on captured soldiers and seized T-34s. The unbreakable Ivushkin is forced to assemble a crew from concentration camp prisoners to train German cadets. Instead of assisting in the treacherous exercises, Ivushkin and his comrades steal their faithful «thirty-four». Escaping the training ground, they finally head home.
