In September 1941, Hitler’s troops advanced far into Soviet territory. Many regions of Ukraine and Belarus were occupied. Remained in the territory occupied by the Germans and a farmstead lost in the steppes, where a young woman Maria, her husband Ivan and their son Vasyatka happily lived. Having seized previously peaceful and abundant land, the Nazis ravaged everything, burned a farm, stole people to Germany, and hanged Ivan and Vasyatka. One Mary managed to escape. Lonely, she had to fight for her life and for the life of her unborn child.

Further events of the story reveal the greatness of the soul of Mary, who truly became the Mother of man. Hungry, exhausted, she does not think about herself at all, saving the girl Sanya, mortally wounded by the Nazis. Sanya replaced the deceased Vasyatka, became a part of the life of Mary, which was crushed by the Nazi invaders. When the girl dies, Mary almost goes crazy, not seeing the meaning of her continued existence. And yet she finds the strength in herself to live.

Feeling a burning hatred of the Nazis, Maria, having met a wounded young German, frantically rushes at him with a pitchfork, wanting to avenge her son and husband. But the German, a defenseless boy, shouted: “Mom! Mum!" And the heart of a Russian woman trembled. The great humanism of a simple Russian soul is extremely simply and clearly shown by the author in this scene.

Maria felt her duty to people who had been driven to Germany, so she began to harvest from collective farm fields not only for herself, but also for those who might still be returning home. A sense of accomplishment supported her in difficult and lonely days. Soon she had a large farm, because all living things flowed onto the looted and burned courtyard of Mary. Maria became, as it were, the mother of all the land surrounding her, the mother who buried her husband, Vasyatka, Sanya, Werner Bracht, and a stranger who was killed on the front line of Glory’s political instructor. Maria was able to take under her shelter seven Leningrad orphans, by the will of fate brought to her farm.

So this brave woman was met by Soviet troops with children. And when the first Soviet soldiers entered the burnt farm, it seemed to Mary that she had given birth not only to her son, but to all the war-destitute children of the world ...