Wintertime near the Finno-Russian front in 1943: Before the two friends Antti and Eino reach troops engaged in combat, they are pulled from the train and ordered to accompany Korpikangas, a former medical student, to a special unit. Under the command of the military clergyman Hiltunen they must enable the return home of fallen soldiers. They are aided by three nurses as they craft coffins and wash corpses. Sometimes they must recover bodies from the no-man's land between trenches. Eino, excels at his duties, while Antti, an officer's son, acts out his business talent with which he beguiles sister Siiri. He even does highly illegal business with a Russian soldier - but has ultimately reckoned without the enemy ... Set behind the front lines, “Silence” tells of the entirely unheroic aspects of war and military conduct. A quiet film about fallible people who must prove themselves under inhumane conditions.