The First World War has ended. The Russian and German empires have broken up, the Soviet Union has been established and Estonia has become independent. In November 1918, the Red Army attacks Estonia, despite its peaceful speeches. The Estonian government announces a general motion, but to no avail. Those invited do not line up. The army has to be raised from volunteers; of the elderly, children and Finns recovering from their own civil war. Estonia is in turmoil. Fleeing civilians, the advancing Red Army, the Estonian Red Guards and the disbanded military units of the Russian Imperial Army wander homeless across the country. Everyone is trying to find their place. Ahas, the son of a poor family, struggles with his conscience. Will he follow his older brother to the Red Guards, stay at home to protect his parents, or fight alongside his schoolmates in the government forces? When the schoolmates join the army, Ahas stays at home. He soon finds himself at the mercy of the Red Guards, who are hunting government supporters. Dressed in his school uniform, Ahas is captured among the others and he meets Marta, a young bourgeois girl. Sulo Kallio (Peter Franzén), a Finnish volunteer officer aspiring to join the government forces, frees Marta and Ahas and runs away with them. During the escape, Ahas chooses his side, he decides to follow his schoolmates to the front with the government forces. The war raises Ahas and her companions towards adulthood – through bitter surprises. When the war ends, everything is different. Everyone has received according to their destiny: freedom, love or their names engraved in marble. .
