Austrian soldier Polish Dodek fell behind the regiment, tired, soaked in the rain, fell asleep under the coat of a Russian officer, and the Russians take and move the current front line forward from themselves. Whether you like it or not, Dodek had to pretend to be a lieutenant of the Russian army Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov.
Russians as a historical and cultural type appear in Polish pre-war cinema not often, but always monotonously - caricature villains, stupid, rude, prone to drunkenness, brawl and bad excesses. This movie is a happy exception, and the Russians are like ordinary people. Dodek not only easily settled among the enemy soldiers, but also actively participated in the activities of the regiment - and not for wrecking reasons, but from the vitality of nature, for the sake of merging with the life of the collective.
In the last third of the film, the benevolent tone changes to the usual grotesque, because ordinary male soldiers disappear from the frame and the central “Russian” character becomes the representative of the reigning house, Grand Duke Vladimir Pavlovich, whose inspection trip was overshadowed by the tricks of the restless Dodek.