It's early spring in 1945 and the end of the war is approaching. The partisans blow up a bridge in the Bohemian-Moravian Uplands. An SS troop settles down in a village near by and forces the village people to fix the bridge. An attack by a British plane interferes with the work and the German soldiers shoot the plane down. The pilot Karel Korán, who is of Czech origin, survives and hides in the tailor Skýva's house. Skýva's niece Jelena tries to take the pilot to the partisans that night. Enraged by the failure of the search for the pilot, the SS commander summons all the people from the village. He wants to know who supports the partisans, where the secret arms magazine is, where the pilot is hiding, and he threatens them with executions.