The Republic of Poland of the 16th century. During the period of religious tolerance, the Sieniawski and Bielecki families compete with each other.

Retired Sypniewski stands before a bizarre task - he must drown kittens.

The story is of an engineer in conflict with his superior. He won't go along with the ususal corruption and conformity. He is left to himself amid indifference and ineptitude by his fellow workers and the management.

The protagonist of the film is Józek Mikuła, a "peasant worker" who runs a small farm with his mother and makes a living as a truck driver at a nearby cement plant. When one day he wins a million in a toto-lottery, news of his unexpected fortune spreads rapidly through the village. Józek decides to invest the money wisely: he buys more land, renovates farm buildings, brings in machinery. He has a gesture - he funds the village with a color TV, which he installs in the clubhouse. But neighbors are stung by Józek's unexpected wealth.

The story concerns a succesful writer at the height of his career. He is in a state of crisis, unable to forget the girl he had a brief affair in the 40's. At the promotion of his new book he meets her after the years and reminisces about the past, when he was on a government mission to recover a missing art treasure, a triptych. After the years the girl, now married, barely remembers the whole thing, while he re-examines the affair which he has so much romanticized.

An officer stationed in a remote Ukranian outpost at the end of the First World War is dying of consumption. Suffering from feverish dreams and hallucinations, he begins to collect religious art and attends seances.

Fall 1925. Six hundred officers demonstrate in front of Józef Piłsudski’s country house in Sulejówek, demanding the Marshal’s return to active political life. May 1926—a government crisis; Wincenty Witos forms a new government. Piłsudski’s move sparks clashes between supporters and opponents of the ousted government. Piłsudski appoints Kazimierz Bartel as prime minister. The beginning of the “moral reform.” Ignacy Mościcki becomes president. Summer 1930. A joint platform of opponents to the Sanacja government is formed. “Centrolew” is established.

A two-part historical film covering the years of the First World War and the post-war period up to 1919 - until the signing of the peace treaty in Versailles near Paris. An attempt to show the great and complicated process of regaining an independent existence by a nation within its own state. The screen shows characters from history textbooks: Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Paderewski, Roman Dmowski, Wojciech Korfanty as well as representatives of the world political scene, incl. David Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, Vladimir Lenin and others.

A Jewish woman escaping from a transport helps a family poisoned by carbon monoxide. The young host decides to hide the girl.

When a political decision is made as to the location of a new large chemical factory, Stefan Bednarz is put in charge of it. This honest communist party man has to confront the local community opposing the construction.