A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.

In 1943, Ewa decides to take care of her Jewish neighbour's daughter and brings her home just for a few days. When the ghetto uprising begins, the woman keeps on looking after the little girl.

A mother carries her sick baby through nine bridges, believing a superstition that it will cure it.

A young man from the countryside fights against all odds to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor.

Three vignettes showing a marriage crisis and a subsequent divorce.

As the Germans invade Poland Jewish Ruth and her mother are trapped by the oncoming Nazis. When they are loaded onto a truck for transportation to a ghetto, Ruth is told by her mother to jump from the truck at the first chance and to make her way to relatives in Warsaw. While the war progresses Ruth tries to survive and grow up.

Maria does not understand her husband. The woman goes to the family home where her sister lives.

Jerzy and Zofia are offered a job in Africa. A married couple is faced with the dilemma of leaving or taking care of the man's mother and her sister.

Shortly after the beginning of World War 2 a young idealist doctor is employed in a psychiatric hospital, where his notions of proper care for the patients are challenged by staff and the German occupation.