Plot synopsis: July 1941, the town of Gdov. Father Alexander, a priest, is being held in the NKVD's dungeons. He was imprisoned for preaching to the faithful about the saints who pleaded with the Savior not to abandon Russia in the ongoing war, but the Savior replied that Russia was so filled with the filth of desolation that it was no longer possible to tolerate these injustices, and that the war was a just punishment for a country that had forgotten God. Such words could not go unnoticed, and Captain Yakovlev of the State Security accused Father Alexander of aiding the advancing Germans...