1943. The closing stages of the titanic struggle between Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia at The Battle of Stalingrad.
Pavel, a young, motorcycle despatch rider, searches for Major Nikolai Solov, an experienced officer skilled in the art of partisan warfare.
A letter from military HQ orders Solov to report to Moscow. He is understandably apprehensive as he has fallen foul of higher authority before and his father was one of a million or so to die in a labour camp during the murderous purges of the 1930s having stayed loyal to Leon Trotsky.
Solov, a veteran of many wars, made his name in 1941 by organising and fighting with the partisans behind enemy lines.
His superiors in Moscow now have a new assignment for him: to open a mini-Second Front involving British Commandos.