Seven schoolboys, still under-age, are drafted into the German Army during the last days of the war in April 1945. Without any training, they receive the order to defend a bridge against advancing American troops. Filled with fervor and patriotic enthusiasm, they believe that fighting for their homeland is the greatest honor. Unaware that the bridge is strategically useless and will be blown up anyway, the boys take their orders very seriously, with many paying the ultimate price. Soon the pointlessness of the deaths, and their orders, is realised. An uncompromising look at the cruelty and absurdity of war.