Tragedy befalls Hanka, as her husband and father die fighting Austrian forces invading the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809.

Szymek, a young man at clash with his home village takes up a job as a geologist and marries a girl whose parents dissaprove of him.

A middle-aged man sets out on a symbolic journey through past, present, and future to learn why an old friend committed suicide, and learns much about his own life along the way.

Rumsza, the elderly railwayman, leading a sedate life with his wife, misses his only remaining son (two older boys were killed in the war). Joziuk finally returns from the military in the first scene but with the pregnant Zosia, while Rumsza expected him to marry Celinka, the daughter of Krywka, his only friend and neighbour. The hero will not accept the new situation; he throws his son and Zosia out of his house. Celinka is distressed but she still harbours hope for Joziuk. The birth of the child changes the situation: Rumsza accepts his son's relationship but Celinka decides to leave.

A Polish priest arrives at a convent hoping to save the Mother Superior who is supposedly possessed by eight demons.