A short story about an three-man crew of lodgers and their task of cutting down a single tree.

Zdzicho leaves prison and tries to get his share from his former partners.

Young Marcin wishes to escape his life in a village and make a career in a city.

A woman learns that her husband has cheated on her and decides to do the same.

The problem of the Polish population displacement from their land within the limits of the Prussian partition. Germans come to the village harassing a wealthy peasant Snail, leading to the tragedy. Slug's cottage burns, his wife dies. The peasant does not give up, defending his inheritance. He sticks on a patch of his Polish soil and protects it like a soldier his post.

Major Henryk "Hubal" Dobrzański refuses to surrender to the Germans in the wake of the 1939 campaign and continues to lead his regiment in guerilla warfare against the invaders.