August 1941. The Red Army, crushed in the border battles, is retreating eastward. Trying to restore the situation, the Soviet command launches counterattacks against the German troops that have broken through. These desperate, poorly prepared attacks rarely achieved their goal — the enemy was too experienced and too strong.
But the divisions that burned up in the summer of ’41 in the fire of suicidal counteroffensives won for the country the most important, the most precious thing in war — time.
This bitter and luminous novella is about the courage of the doomed. About those who stood to the death, not thinking of glory or rewards. Who died but did not surrender. Who fought for the Motherland — and saved it at the cost of their own lives.