Vassili Zaitsev (JL) is a Russian shepherd boy who has volunteered to fight for his country in the historic battle of Stalingrad. The movie is about how he is made into a hero from a common shepherd boy, as an idol for the other soldiers and Russians in general to look upto. All this is done by a political officer, Commisar Danilov (JF), of the Russian army. Both of them become very good friends.

The Germans call upon their best sniper Major Konig (EH) to hunt down Vassili. The rest of the movie is about the cat and mouse game that the two snipers play in trying to hunt down each other. In parallel, runs the love story between Vassili and Tania Chernova (RW) a Moscow University graduate who has volunteered in the war.