Jan, the café pianist, comes from the countryside. The talented boy was taken care of by an old organist. Jan then studied at the conservatory, where he made friends with Paweł, an undisciplined but very talented composer. Paweł's works gain publicity abroad, but he himself, unable to bear human envy and accept the loss of his beloved girl, commits suicide ... Jan's father dies, and soon his mother ...

The happiness that has passed away will never return - this is exactly what a young Polish man learns when, in the immediate post-war period, he recalls how he fell in love with a charming Jewish girl before the outbreak of the war. He manages to find her, only she is already married and has a child.