The plot is based on the dramatic fate of the Red Army commander Aleksei Ivanovich Pavlov. Having been captured in January 1942 and being among the displaced persons, he didn't immediately decide to return to the USSR. Having rolled around the foreign country for 17 years, Aleksei nevertheless returned to his homeland. He goes to his brother in the south of the country to Sevastopol. Aleksei accidentally meets the doctor Anna Andreyevna, who was saved from death in besieged Leningrad. She travels by car from Moscow and also to the south, with her daughter Tanya; she suggests he join them. Aleksei tells about his life on the road.
| Directing | Sergei Gerasimov | Director |
| Writing | Sergei Gerasimov | Writer |
| Writing | Tamara Makarova | Story |
| Camera | Vladimir Rapoport | Director of Photography |
| Art | Boris Dulenkov | Production Design |
| Art | Paul Lehmann | Production Design |
| Sound | Aram Khachaturyan | Original Music Composer |
| Sound | Pavel Chekalov | Original Music Composer |
| Sound | Valentin Khlobynin | Sound |
| Editing | Lidiya Zhuchkova | Editor |
| Costume & Make-Up | Mariam Bykhovskaya | Costume Design |
| Costume & Make-Up | Lothar Stäglich | Makeup Artist |
| Costume & Make-Up | Aleksei Smirnov | Makeup Artist |
| Costume & Make-Up | Joachim Dittrich | Costume Design |
| Editing | Monika Behrendt | Assistant Editor |
| Sound | Werner Blaß | Sound |
| Sound | Emin Khachaturyan | Conductor |
| Camera | Lev Rogozin | Camera Operator |
| Art | Boris Kuzovkin | Assistant Production Design |
| Costume & Make-Up | Anatoliy Ivanov | Makeup Artist |
| Art | Vadim Kornilyev | Assistant Director of Photography |
| Crew | Konstantin Alekseyev | Special Effects |
