Leningrad is on its knees, in its fifth month under siege, when seventeen-year-old Lev is thrown into jail for looting the body of a dead German soldier. As he waits through the interminable night before his certain execution he is joined by Kolya, a handsome, aristocratic young soldier arrested for desertion.
Instead of the anticipated firing squad, dawn brings an impossible challenge: If Lev and Kolya find a dozen eggs for an NKVD colonel to use for his daughter
