The story of downed WWII Soviet fighter pilot (and Hero of the Soviet Union) Alexiei Maresyev, who with both feet amputated because of frostbite returns to combat flying. The author was practically everywhere during the war. Boris Polevoi parachuted several times into the enemy's rear, served in Stalingrad, was present at the capture of Paulus, wrote from Banska Bystrica during the Slovak uprising, landed in the first liaison plane in war-struck Prague, and witnessed the meeting of Allied troops on the Elbe and the capture of the Reichstag in Berlin. At the Nuremberg Trial Polevoi headed the group of Soviet journalists as a special Pravda correspondent.