During a raid on a village, young Russian soldiers are unable to prevent the death of a child, killed by a land mine. The child's mother shoots the village policeman in her grief and is shot herself by the panicking soldiers, who are posted to a remote check point for thirty days as a punishment. Although they do not actually see the enemy in the darkness of the surrounding forest, they hear the intermittent snipers. The longer they stay the more paranoid the get. Soon they suspect enemies behind every tree.