Milan is falsely accused by a German soldier of stealing his fish prompting Milan's brother to chase the soldier away with a pitchfork. Meanwhile, the villagers are tasked with loading German grain which the Partisans are planning to burn.

A group of prisoners are brought to the village and Vasa is beaten by the German commander when he tries to give them water. Enraged, he sets fire to the German wheat.

After the soldiers fail to find out who set fire to the wheat, a cunning and ruthless policeman, Sicer, arrives to take over the case. His suspicions are immediately aroused by the barber's sudden disappearance, but a student is arrested.

Sicer rounds up all the men in the village between the ages of 17 and 50 and announces that he'll shoot one every day until he's told who set fire to the wheat and who's helping the partisans.

As Sicer starts shooting the hostages, Milan, Vasa, and Branko plan to dig a tunnel to save the imprisoned villagers.

Fearing for the life of her elder son, Radojka goes to the partisans to plead for help.

Milan, now with the partisans, is sent with a snobbish city runaway Rasa, to spend the winter with his mother in Moldovin.

En route to Moldovin, Milan and Rasa run into a squad of Hitlerjugend forcing them to hide in a marsh. After spending some time in the water, Rasa falls ill.

Looking for food, Milan arrives in the German village of Jakobsfeld where he is abused by the local Hitlerjugend. However, the cantankerous but kindly landowner Jakob Jerih comes to his rescue.

Even though he's now in Jerih's employ, Milan continues to be abused by the Hitlerjugend. That is until Jerih intervenes. Meanwhile, Milan befriends the local tailor who teaches him the ropes of working in the Jerih household.

After Rasa, now hiding out in Jerih's stable, sends his friend Slavko a letter, Slog, a partisan, comes to Jakobsfeld looking for the two boys.

After making contact with the boys, Slog takes Rasa to the city with the help of Milan who stops off on the way back to Jakobsfeld to visit his mother and aunt.

To appease his lonely wife, Jerih makes plans to adopt Milan, but under the condition that he is never to see his mother again. After hearing this, Milan decides to run away and rejoin the partisans.