The film is centered on a true story that happened in 1943 in the Sobibor concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. The most important character of the film is the Soviet-Jewish soldier Alexander Pechersky, that at the time was serving as a lieutenant in the Red Army. Back in October 1943, he was seized by the Nazis and sentenced to the Sobibor concentration camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. But, in just a few weeks, Alexander was in a position to plan a international uprising of offenders. This uprising led to being the sole successful one during the war, which resulted in the escape of prisoners out of the Nazi concentration camp.