It is 1941, and World War II rages on; the Nazis succeeded in taking over half of Europe and part of Russia until they reached Leningrad. Hitler fails to take Leningrad after a four-month-long offensive in 1941. The Russians keep throwing more and more people into their trenches to hold off the German advance. The cost in lives is horrendous, but Stalin is determined to make a stand at Leningrad. Russians fight German armored columns with grenades and rifles.Field Marshal Von Leeb (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has disappointed Hitler by not taking over Leningrad even in 3 months. Hitler changes strategy and moves his thrust to Moscow. Hitler realizes that Leningrad could not be taken by force, and now he will surround the city, and starve three million people to death. His advisers tell him that Leningrad is down to 500 calories of rations every day per person, when normal body requires 2000 calories every day. The advisor predicts 2 MM dead in 3 months. Only one route of supplies from Leningrad is still open, a narrow channel across the lake. But very little gets through, only 1 in 20 barges makes it across.A group of foreign journalists led by Phillip Parker (Gabriel Byrne) are flown in by the Soviet Govt for one day (as a form of propaganda to show that Leningrad is still functioning). In the midst of this horrific siege, a young English journalist, Kate Davis, visits Leningrad (Despite the city having only a few days of rations left, the foreign delegation is treated to sumptuous chocolates and wines) & her convoy is attacked by Nazi's air-force left by Walter Hoesdorff (Alexander Beyer), who is close to Von Leeb (Walter is not supportive of Hitler's plan to starve Leningrad). Kate Davis (Mira Sorvino), is presumed dead (Phillip is shown Kate's bag that she dropped on the ground while she was being bombed by German planes) and misses the flight out.Kate survives but is presumed killed & is stuck in Leningrad without hope of rescue (She is rescued from the hit-zone by some locals, who cannot understand her and report her to the authorities). She is taken in by a Russian cop, a girl called Nina Tsvetkova (Olga Sutulova) a young and idealist police officer (Nina was in charge of crowd control while the foreign delegation was in town. She is a fierce nationalist and was observing Kate in secret). When the locals report, Nina is the first to respond. Nina tries to get Kate to the airport, but as Kate has no papers she cannot pass any checkpoints.In Moscow, Stalin is told that Leningrad will run out of food in 9 days. 9800 tonnes was delivered in last 30 days, but the city needs 1100 tonnes daily. Nina asks her boss to report Kate to the HQ, but her boss refuses since he was the one who had earlier reported Kate to be dead, based on which the flight took off. He is afraid of repercussions if he tries to correct it. Her boss orders Nina to kill Kate. Nina takes Kate (& forges new papers for her, with a new identity as a Spanish communist political refugee) to her home which she shares with Valentina (Valentina Talyzina) & her 2 kids Sima & Yura. Food rations are reduced to 150 grams per day per person. Kate gets work as a theatre worker to be eligible for food coupons.As the food rations become dearer, Valentina is starving herself & Yura to give food to Sima as she thinks Sima has a chance. Kate gives Yura hope. Russians find out that Kate survived & had a Russian dad (Kate's father was a Russian Monarchist (and thus against the Russian revolution who was presumed killed (with his wife) in an battle. But he survived and married Kate's stepmother, whose surname Kate took to avoid detection by the KGB).Phillip had returned to UK and met Kate's stepmother and father and understood the truth. He published an article, saying that Kate was a Russian spy in the UK. This story was picked up by the Russians & they think Kate is a British spy & hunt for her (The Russian KGB think that British Intelligence have outwitted them to insert Kate in Leningrad), as Nina protects her (by bribing her boss with sex). Nina had fallen in love with Kate. Nina's boss tells her about Kate's father and his monarchist past. Nina confronts Kate, who admits the truth, but says she is not a spy.. Nina also sees that Kate stole from her boss at the theatre to buy food for Yura, to keep him alive.Valentina dies of hunger.. Kate now feels responsible for Sima and Yura. One day Kate's old colleague Korneyev (Yevgeni Sidikhin) finds her on the streets on Leningrad and recognizes her. He implores her to fly with him to Moscow, but Kate wont leave the children behind. Korneyev reaches Moscow and asks for help from the Soviet Govt, telling them Kate is in Leningrad and is alive. Soviets want to arrest Kate, but The colleague had the address from Kate's false ID papers and that's the only thing that saves Kate. Soviets also check the address of Kate's theatre boss and find that she had a maid, who was the mother to Nina, the cop of the precinct where Kate was reported dead.Meanwhile Korneyev meets Phillip, who is at a Moscow Hotel and informs him that Kate is alive and is in Leningrad. As winter comes, the lake freezes & the army finds a route over the snow to get supplies to Leningrad. Nina is part of the army group that skied over the lake to prove that a land route is now viable (only 8 of the 36 skiers survived). She gets to take her family out. Kate escapes and gets to the other side of the lake where Phillip is waiting. Kate was so weak that she cant carry Yura. She also find that Nina is going back to Leningrad as the deal was only for family members and Nina wont be able to come back with Yura. Kate also goes back to care for Yura. Nina is killed in an air raid in 1943, Kate dies of hunger the same year. Sima & Yura reunite in 1961. Leningrad was liberated in 1944