Zlatibor, at the end of the summer of 1943. British General Charles Armstrong, the new head of allied military missions, is coming to the Supreme Command of the Yugoslav Army. He announces the imminent capitulation of Italy and the landing of the Western Allies on the Adriatic Sea.

A young lieutenant must persuade a captive resistance fighter to betray his comrades, or enforce a law which states that for every German soldier killed, one hundred civilians must be executed.