Synopsis
It is late autumn 1943. A small sabotage team of the Resistance, ridden with disease and hunger, vegetates in the damp, autumnal woods, waiting for the next call to action. Their task is to coordinate difficult military actions, particularly the assassination of Nazis and their sympathisers. They are partisans devoted to special ops, only they are in need of some special operations themselves. One of the soldiers of the unit, Corporal Otter, is ordered to kidnap a man from a nearby village, the informer Kondolevich. Otter is a specialist in carrying out death sentences on Germans and traitors, and Kondolevich turns out to be his old school mate. Having brought the informer to the woods, Otter discovers that his whole squad has been massacred, their throats slit. Otter is shaken by the sight, and Kondolevich takes advantage of the situation and escapes, only to die a few moments later. From this moment we slowly uncover the mystery behind the deaths of the partisans, the plot being told in a retrospective manner through the stories of a few main characters. They are: Lieutenant BLACK – the unit leader dying of tuberculosis; the informer KONDOLEVICH and his WIFE, the latter who was once romantically involved with Corporal Otter, and lastly ADDER, the partisan squadron’s nurse, who did not hesitate to betray her unit in order to save her sister’s life. This story is a harrowing tale of betrayal and revenge, of morality and guilt, punishment and a sense of honour and loyalty."