The year 1943. The Second World War is on. A group of partisans, which includes, among others, the young poet Gonczar, his friend Włodek and Zosia, are ordered to blow up a railway bridge during a military transport crossing. The task is completed, but with great losses.

Wiktor Wiarecki is an unsuccessful writer. He is also not successful in his personal life: Wiktor's marriage is in crisis, and his adult son wants nothing to do with his father. The turning point is the death of his friend Wiarecki, an outstanding writer Stefan Przewłocki. A literary widow gives Wiktor the materials for the deceased's last novel.

A radio journalist is having a heart attack. This event becomes a pretext to summarize life.

Poland, 1945. Crowds of repatriates are traveling from east to west in search of new homes and loved ones lost during the war. At one of the train stations, a young woman, Hanna Powiłańska, sits among the crowd of displaced persons. The girl recalls a story of turbulent love. Before the war, at a carnival ball, she met the handsome Lech Oleszkiewicz. In September, war broke out. Hanna meets the engineer again and spends the night with him. In the morning, the man tells her that he is married. Hanna breaks off the relationship.

Beata, Bożena and Magdalena are waiting for their husbands-seamen in the Tri-City.

Based on actual events in 1982, the film recreates a hostage-taking in Switzerland. Four men storm the Polish embassy: a criminal, a crazed killer, a student and an idealist. When the embassy is stormed by the police, the four captors react differently.

Marta comes to Lublin as a captain of the Polish Army. She is looking for information about her son - Stefan, whom she last saw years ago, when she went with her husband to fighting Spain.

A Polish criminalist specialises in various historical mysteries. He is aided by a miraculous car, with the help of which he also reaches Prague, where he unravels ancient cabalistic mysteries.