Come and See begins with two Belorussian boys digging in a sand field looking for abandoned rifles, in order to be permitted membership into the Soviet partisan forces, while an old farmer warns them not to dig. One of the boys, Florya, finds an SVT-40. The next day, partisans arrive at his house and take Florya with them, to the dismay of his mother who fears that the loss of her son, like his father before him, will lessen her and her daughters' chances of survival. The partisans converge in a forest and prepare to confront the Nazis, but the partisan commander orders Florya to remain behind at the camp in reserve; disappointed, Florya walks into the forest, weeping, and comes across Glasha, a girl in love with the commander who has also been left behind. Suddenly, German planes appear and begin to drop German parachutists, and the camp comes under heavy artillery fire. Florya goes temporarily deaf from the explosions and, after hiding out in the forest, returns to his home village with Glasha. He does not find his family at home but his sisters' dolls are lined up on the floor and the house is overrun by flies. When they sit down to eat the still warm dinner from the oven, Glasha vomits. Denying what they both suspect, Florya decides that they must be hiding on a nearby island across a bog.