本片根據波蘭著名同名小說改編，講述了二戰期間，華沙被納粹德國軍隊占領，波蘭童子軍的年輕人們與德國占領者進行英勇鬥爭的故事。Based on a well-known Polish novel with the same title the movie re-tells a true life story of a group of scouts called ''Szare Szeregi'' (Gray Ranks) during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and the liberation of one of its members (imprisoned and tortured by the Germans) through a maverick military action in board daylight right under the enemy's nose known ''Action at the Arsenal'' which was the biggest single feat of the sort undertaken by a youth resistance organisation in all of occupied Europe during WWII.