In 1915, with World War I raging, Yuri Zhivago is drafted and becomes a battlefield doctor. He and Lara are reunited over a year later in a makeshift field hospital, where she is serving as a nurse while searching for her missing husband. The two fall in love but do not consummate their relationship. Together they run a hospital for several months, during which time radical changes ensue throughout Russia due to the communist takeover of the country. Lara leaves the hospital to return to her village while Zhivago returns to Moscow.