By the beginning of the war in Chechnya, the legendary Major Izmailov worked in the military registration and enlistment office of the city of Zhukovsky. Having buried the first conscript who died during the storming of Grozny, he refused to send 18-year-old children to death and went to Chechnya himself to take out the prisoners. And he freed at least 174 people. The film uses a rare chronicle of the Chechen wars from the private archives of mothers who were looking for their sons in Chechnya, as well as negotiating officers from the working group on the exchange of prisoners. For the first time, the heroes of the film tell in detail what they had to go to to free people from captivity on both sides.