About the title
Leningrad, winter 1941. After a severe concussion, senior sergeant Nikolai Svetlov is discharged from the hospital and assigned to the zoo, where the staff quietly perform an act of heroism every day, saving the animals from starvation. A special place in the zoo belongs to a hippopotamus named Krasavitsa (Beauty). At first the sergeant sees his posting at the zoo as a mistake and dreams of returning to the front, but the longer he stays, the more clearly he realizes the true importance of his mission.