In August 1941, 20-year-old Jiri Pospichal is sent as a volunteer of the Czechoslovak army to north-african town Tobruk where he and the 11th Infantry Battalion are assigned to help the Allied Forces defending the last strategic seaport in Libya from German and Italian units. There, Jiri and his comrades - among them befriended Jan Libermann - soon realize that their naïve ideas of heroism have no bearing on the reality of war. Due not only to the fear of hostile ordnance but also to the barren desert and the lack of supplies the men are exposed at the limits of their patience and bravery. A struggle against the loss of their self-respect and for life begins for Jiri and the rest of the troop.