The movie is centered on a true story that happened in the Sobibor concentration camp in German-occupied Poland in 1943. The movie's most important character is that the soldier Alexander Pechersky, who in that time was serving in the Red Army as a lieutenant. Back in October 1943he was seized by the Nazis and sentenced to the Sobibor concentration camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. However, in just 3 weeks, Alexander was able to plan a uprising of prisoners. This uprising triggered being the only successful one during the war, which led to the escape of prisoners out of the Nazi concentration camp.