10 year old Moische, a Jewish peasant living with his widower father and younger sister in Western Ukraine, is targeted by the local council of elders to be kidnapped and forcibly recruited into the Russian army in order to fulfill an annual quota. As the horsemen approach, Moische hears their arrival and takes off into the woods, as the horsemen pursue him. He seeks refuge with a local Christian widow who agrees to hide him in her home as the horsemen descend.