Early in the film, Russian forces occupy Horlivka. Two soldiers attack the Voronenkos' home and burn it, killing the pregnant Nastya when she tries to fight back. This is the turning point: Mykola loses both his wife and his unborn child.
Consumed by grief and rage, he joins a volunteer battalion. He goes through tough training and becomes an elite sniper, taking the call sign "White Raven". He goes after the invaders, especially those responsible for his loss, and high-value enemy snipers.
The climax is a duel with a Russian counter-sniper who has killed several of his new comrades. The film keeps the audience unsure whether Mykola will survive. A final coda, as one critic joked, explains why Russian generals become "as rare as white ravens", turning the film's symbol of forgiveness into a mark of deadly precision.
In the end, the peace sign in the grass and the sniper's call sign are the same symbol. Its meaning has been reversed by the war.