 Afghanistan, 1981, and the Soviet Union is locked in a futile and bloody battle with the Mujahedeen. Separated from their patrol after a vicious attack on an Afghani village, a T-62 tank engages in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the local mujahed, led by the Afghan Taj. The tyrannical and increasingly unstable tank commander Daskal pushes the moral boundaries of the tank driver Constantine Koverchenko to the limits, with almost dire consequences. Sensing a mutiny, Daskal abandons Koverchenko to die in the desert at the hand of the Afghans, only to find that he s sealed his own fate.