A woman just out of prison gets a job in a nursing home and tries, unsuccessfully, to put her life back together.

The film begins with two symbolic scenes: an eagle fluttering in a cage. Cossacks cut down pine trees with sabers to clear the field of fire. It is June 1980. A large rubbish dump near Wólka Węglowa, exactly where Polish cavalrymen charged German troops in 1939. Not far away is the Warsaw Steelworks. A group of former cavalrymen renew their efforts to erect a monument to the Polish cavalry. The cavalrymen stage a reenactment of the charge; it is a commented reconstruction of those events, supported by film documents. A strike breaks out on the coast, then at the Warsaw Steelworks. On radio and television, editor Ryszard Wojna warns the public against a repeat of the events of 1863. This has no effect on the workers' decision. A strike committee is formed at the steelworks, and the workers formulate their demands. The scenes at the steelworks and the strike situations are filmed live.

Vasyl follows his wife, who escaped to an Orthodox clergyman who is to heal her of infertility.

Rysiek is an escapee from a reform school. Julek escapes the anger of a fire brigade in a small town from which he embezzled. In search for food Rysiek breaks into a villa and discovers a bundle of cash in the freezer. They team together in Warsaw and decide to go on a rampage through the city.

Peter and Bozena are studying medicine, they love each other and want to be together. The girl, after a dramatic experience, breaks off contact with her parents and moves out. With the help of a friend, the young couple manages to rent a small apartment. However, their life is not going well. Peter begins to cheat on Bozena. Accidentally met Joe slips the girl a drug. One time was enough for Bozena to go in search of an illusory land of happiness - Alabama, which does not exist. However, the girl finds out too late.

En route to London, Bear discovers at the border checkpoint that his passport is missing a few pages, which may prevent him from traveling to the city with the sports team he manages.

A story about the inhabitants of Warsaw's Praga from the late 1970s. There are representatives of the social margin among them, but there are also a collector of works of art, an ex-peasant who keeps raising peacocks, an old woman collecting dolls. This extremely colorful company lives in old, demolished tenement houses.