| Director | Mikhail Kalatozov |
|---|---|
| Budget | SUR 2.5 million |
In Moscow, on June 22, 1941, Veronika and her boyfriend Boris watch cranes fly over the city as the sun rises and then sneak back into their families' apartments. Hours later, Boris’s cousin Mark wakes him with the news that the Germans have invaded.
Veronika soon learns that Boris has volunteered for the army. Boris asks his grandmother to give Veronika her birthday gift, a stuffed squirrel toy, into which he slides a love note. Veronika arrives too late to see Boris at his apartment, but his grandmother gives Veronika the stuffed squirrel.
Veronika searches for Boris at the assembly station for those being drafted into the army, but he has already marched off to war by then. Veronika remains in Moscow with her parents, who are killed in a German air raid that also destroys their apartment building. Boris's family invites the orphaned Veronika to stay with them.
Boris's cousin Mark tells Veronika he loves her, but she faithfully waits for Boris to return. Veronika and Mark are alone in the apartment when another air raid occurs. Mark makes a pass at her, but she rebuffs him. Furious at being rejected, he rapes her. Veronika and Mark marry, but she despises him, and in turn, she is despised by the family who considers her to have betrayed Boris.
At the front, Boris gets into an argument with another soldier, Volodya, who taunts him over a photo of Veronika. Their commanding officer catches them fighting and assigns them a dangerous reconnaissance mission. Boris saves Volodya’s life, but gets shot himself. In his final moments, he has a vision of the wedding that he and Veronika would never have.
To escape the German offensive, the family is relocated to Siberia. Veronika works as a nurse in a military hospital run by Boris's father, Fyodor. Mark and Veronika are miserable in their marriage. When a soldier in the hospital becomes hysterical after receiving a letter saying his girlfriend left him for someone else, Veronika rushes to get Fyodor, who is processing the arrival of wounded troops.
She barely misses seeing the injured Volodya, who is about to be admitted to the hospital, before Fyodor says that the hospital is full. Fyodor admonishes the distraught soldier to forget his unfaithful and unworthy girlfriend. Veronika overhears Fyodor’s speech and becomes upset since she appears to be such a woman. Just before she attempts suicide by trying to throw herself under a train, she sees a young boy about to be hit by a car and rescues him. The boy has been separated from his mother, and his name is Boris. Veronika takes the boy home and looks for her squirrel toy from Boris.
Boris's sister Irina spitefully tells Veronika that Mark is giving the toy to his mistress at her birthday party. Veronika races over to the party, where a partygoer has finally found the note that Boris hid. Veronika grabs it, and in voice-over, Boris narrates the final tender love note to her.
Fyodor learns that Mark bribed his way out of being drafted into the Red Army. He kicks him out, and Veronika is forgiven by the family for "betraying" Boris. Veronika begins to raise the little boy Boris.
Later, Volodya comes looking Boris's family and tells them that Boris is dead. The war ends. Veronika still refuses to believe that Boris is dead since Volodya was injured himself and never saw Boris die.
When Boris’s unit returns, Veronika carries a huge bouquet of flowers and searches for him and his fellow soldier Stepan during a celebration at the train station. Veronika finds Stepan and finally learns that Boris is indeed dead. In tears, she stumbles through the celebrating crowd.
As Stepan gives a rousing speech, asserting that those who died in the war will never be forgotten, Veronika goes from grieving to handing out her flowers to the returning soldiers and their families. When she looks up, cranes are flying again in the sky over Moscow.