The protagonist of "Passerby" is writer and filmmaker Tadeusz Konwicki. His story, which reflects the paradoxes of the 20th century history, is commented by means of fragments of his films, documentary newsreels and stage productions.

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.

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.

The film evokes a childhood in rural Lithuania between the wars. A country boy, Tomaszek, lives on a rich estate, situated on the Polish border. He realizes that the Issa Valley he lives in is to be torn apart by internal political conflicts and unrests among the mixed population of Poles, Lithuanians, Jews and Russians. He, however, is captivated by a paradise surrounding him, the forest, and his fantasies.

A daughter of a furniture seller helps her father’s business by promising a marriage to the customers.

A pair of lovers go off to a small hotel in a little town. The memories of war, however, intrude on their idyll. The girl and boy relive certain wartime experiences in flashback. She was a communist who drove a boy loving her to give himself up.

The year is 1998 and the world is in an ecological cataclysm: there is shortage of water, environment is polluted and being outside brings high risks. The main character is a tv technician, Jan, an individualist, who is harassed by the conformists. Jan loves Ewa, a ballet student, who in turn is in a liaison with Allan, a successful and powerful man.

Romek, an idealistc 19-year-old boy, takes a job as a tailor in the costume department of a Warsaw theater company where his new colleague, Sowa, is pressured to make a costume for an overbearing soloist.

A man jumps off a moving train and goes to a small town to face its inhabitants, who seem familiar, but odd.