The air raid sirens echoing through the streets of Moscow cut short the story of Veronika and Boris, which had only just begun. As Boris sets off for the front lines, for those left behind, time turns into a wait where seconds drag by slowly amid the bombed-out houses. Amid this atmosphere of drama and war, Mikhail Kalatozov focuses not on the vast destruction seeping into the daily lives of ordinary people, but on the heavy sense of emptiness that lingers. Trapped between shelters and difficult decisions on the gray streets of Moscow, Veronika struggles to stay afloat with letters arriving from afar. While the din of war rages in the distance, the wounds opened in the human spirit leave far deeper scars than those suffered at the front.