This story is about a young Ober lieutenant of the special operations forces of the KSK Bundeswehr of Germany - Bruno Thevs, who served in the special intelligence anti—terrorist unit TF-47 (TASK FORCE 47) as part of the Joint Forces of the Western coalition ISAF in Afghanistan.
After tough and grueling tests at the secret KSK base in Germany, Bruno passes a special selection and rotates into the Task Force 47 (TF-47) special unit as part of the Combined Forces of the Western ISAF Coalition in Afghanistan.
Upon arrival at the unit and the beginning of combat activity, in one of the special operations, Ober lieutenant Bruno Thevs rescues the German reporter "Der Spiegel" Otto Greenberg (prototype Stephen Farrell from the New York Times) from the Taliban captivity.
The evacuation of the wounded journalist to the hospital of the MSF Doctors Without Borders humanitarian mission in Kunduz promotes Bruno's acquaintance there with the Afghan doctor Seeta Akhmadzai, a German citizen from a family of Afghan immigrants born in Munich.
Bruno and Seeta are starting a romantic relationship.
Also thanks to Otto Greenberg, Bruno Thevs receives from Mujahid Ismatullah, who fought against the Soviet troops in the 1980s, relics — a notebook and two photographs belonging to his deceased Father— Konstantin Thevs.
One of the photos shows six Soviet soldiers, including Konstantin. Ismatullah picked them up under boulders — the place where Soviet soldiers put their dead and wounded during the battle.
Ismatullah, at Bruno's request, brings him to the mountainous region, the place where his father fought and died. There, from the mouth of Ismatullah, a direct participant in that dramatic event, Bruno listens to a story with detailed circumstances.
Participating in TF-47 special operations against the Afghan Mujahideen, Ober leutnant Bruno is faced with the excessive use of ISAF military force, justifying his actions by fighting the Taliban and international terrorism, but bringing victims and destruction to civilians.
In the development of the plot, it is told about the actual airstrikes in Kunduz province, inflicted on civilian objects and dwellings of the population, which led to three tragedies with mass deaths of people.
In one of these airstrikes on the MSF Doctors Without Borders hospital, together with civilians, with a group of doctors, Bruno's beloved girlfriend, Seeta Akhmadzai, is killed. The young couple should have already had a wedding. In another air raid, Otto Greenberg, a reporter for Der Spiegel who became Bruno's friend, is killed.
These heavy losses strengthen Bruno's confidence in the inhumanity of the goals and means of the Bundeswehr and the entire Western ISAF alliance in Afghanistan. Bruno is also disappointed in his private military mission.
At the end of his service in Afghanistan, Bruno returns to Germany and retires from military service. From there, he soon goes to his homeland in Jambul and pours a handful of Afghan soil collected by him at the site of the last battle on his Father's grave.
Having found a phone number from an old notebook of one of the surviving comrades of his father, a legless invalid Rustam Tukaev (Rust), Bruno flies to Moscow. Rust tells him the military history of his father — Kostyan (Konstantin Thevs) and his 5 friends - Strela (German Streltsov from Leningrad), Mongol (Darkhan Badmaev — Buryat shaman from Ulan—Ude), Sidor (Sergei Sidorenko from Rostov-on-Don), Koster (Ivan Kostrov from Moscow), and with them his own — Rust (Rustam Tukaev from Tatarstan). From the narrative, Bruno learns about the vicissitudes of Koster, Sidor and Rust on his return from Afghanistan.
The political crisis in Moscow in October 1993, which escalated into an armed confrontation between supporters of the President and the Supreme Council, splits Russian society into two halves. On different sides of the barricades were those who, a few years ago, fought shoulder to shoulder in Afghanistan and sacrificed themselves for friends. Sidor, Rust and Koster are honest before their conscience and true to their beliefs.
Sidor, who firmly believes in the strict adherence of the Supreme Council and the Council of People's Deputies to the Constitution of Russia, finds himself in the camp of defenders of the House of Soviets. Rust and his comrades from the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan are on the side of President Yeltsin. The Alpha fire officer performs the tasks assigned by the command.
Having arrived at the House of Soviets at the beginning of the armed confrontation with a group of comrades from the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan, Rust will be seriously injured with a sniper bullet.
Rust's life is hanging by a thread, he is in a coma, and spends several months in a hospital bed.
Koster, risking his life, takes out a wounded Sidor from the upper floor of the House of Soviets, engulfed in flames, but soon, carrying out a wounded soldier from under fire, he himself dies. A young daughter Masha remains after him.
In the second half of the 1990s, Sidor joined a large diamond business, but by a fateful coincidence, he was outlawed and received a long prison sentence.
Despite a long imprisonment and a special habitat, Sidor retains morality and moral principles.
Sidor's release from prison coincides with Bruno's arrival in Russia.
Bruno and Rust go to meet Sidor at the gates of the colony and on the way back they get into a twist.
Upon returning to Moscow, Rust introduces Bruno to the daughter of the deceased Koster, Masha Kostrova, a student of Lomonosov Moscow State University.
United by a common misfortune — the loss of their father-friends, Bruno and Masha will connect with a relationship.