As a result of another outrage by fans of the England national team, which escalated into multi-day clashes, the leadership of European football disqualifies the English from the European Football Cup. Instead, the Russian team enters the final stage. The Russian Football Federation has only two weeks to assemble a team. Head coach Sorokin and his assistant Mikhalych invite to the team the football players who have today become "downed pilots": forwards Matveev and Sanaev are under investigation for a fight, defender Bushagov, after a loud scandal, is divorcing his wife, who demands huge alimony, young forward Kizyakov because of of his character sits on a bench and so on. They all lost the opportunity to play, earn big money, be idols and real stars. But Sorokin's plan - to give them a chance to return to their former life - does not work: the new team cannot work together, each player pursues his own goals, and therefore they do not form a team.
June 21, 1941. Young lieutenant Kolya Pluzhnikov, having received an appointment to a permanent place of service, arrives in Brest. The crowded waiting rooms of the station and the crowd of people weighed down with luggage do not alarm the young man, filled with joyful hopes. Kolya hurries to the location of his unit - the Brest Fortress... The soldier does not have time to enlist in the personnel of the military, and at four in the morning artillery explosions are heard - the war has begun. He was not enlisted in the ranks of the military personnel of the Brest Fortress, but still took part in the first battle in his life, which lasted ten months.