After the First World War, Transcarpathia experienced a revival of national identity. In early 1939, as Europe was preparing for another war, the struggle for control of the region intensified. In the difficult conditions of political and military confrontation, full independence of the Carpathian Ukraine was proclaimed.

But on the night of March 13-14, 1939, Hungary, with the support of Hitler's Germany, launched a war against the Carpathian Ukraine. After clashes with Czech troops, the army of the newly created Transcarpathian Carpathian Sich took control of the country. From the first hours of the Hungarian invasion part of the "Carpathian Sich" waged bloody battles with the dominant forces of the enemy along the line Uzhgorod-Mukachevo-Beregovo-Sevlyush. On March 16, 1939, after suffering heavy casualties, the enemy succeeded in capturing Khust, and on March 18, much of the territory of the Carpathian Ukraine was occupied by Hungarian troops. According to various sources, from 2 to 6,5 thousand people were killed in the protection of the Carpathian Ukraine.

The short period of existence of the Carpathian Ukraine became one of the most striking pages of the Carpathian Ukrainians' long-standing struggle for the establishment of statehood. The film combines three storylines - eyewitness stories, little-known documents, expertly captured landscapes and scenes. In order to make the film, footage from the cinematographer Kalenik Lysyuk, Czechoslovak military chronicles, as well as the materials of British journalist Michael Vinc and correspondent of the American New York Times Anne McCormick, who worked in the Carpathian Ukraine at the time as international observers, were used.