In October 1941, the Soviet Union is experiencing an Operation Barbarossa by Nazi Germany. Despite Soviet resistance, the Germans occupy large parts of the country. In a so far unoccupied part of the disputed Pskov Oblast, an NKVD officer (Sergey Garmash) arrives at an officer's building and speaks to a NKVD officer, handing him the documents of a fallen Red Army soldier. Suddenly, a grenade explodes and German special assault troops enter the building and open fire. "Checkist" and his NKVD comrade, a political instructor called "Livshits" (Konstantin Khabensky) flee and, amid the chaos and gunfire, discard their uniforms in a local laundry, knowing that German troops Commissar Order and Jews. Eventually, they are caught by soldiers from a German motorized infantry unit and led westward along with many other prisoners.