The film depicts the momentous and tragic history of the Poznan uprising of 1956. The memory of the director, who was a nine-year-old boy at the time, is the only canvass of the script. The main characters of the black-and-white film are two boys aged ten and twelve. From their perspective, the viewer follows the development of events. From the depths of the gates, through the rails of fences and cluttered backyards, through the eyes of the children we watch the street riots. The film, without action in the literal sense of the word, was made using a reportage technique that perfectly captures the spontaneity of the Poznan uprising. Among other things, the author of the picture depicts the adventures of a young worker Zenek, who becomes the unwitting leader of the protest, and five professors, who by chance find themselves in the very center of events.

Two brothers living in 1939 Poland decide on a whim to steal the limousine of a German consul. The seemingly small act of youthful rebellion will have massive ramifications on the two, each dealing with the aftermath in their own way - one resorts to art, the other to direct political action.

Etam, a young man from a small town in Lailonia, plucks pears from a neighbor's tree for his friend Nita. He is branded with a red patch on his pants for the theft. It soon turns out that the patch is contagious. Red patches appear on the pants of all Etam's friends. The patches get bigger and the boys wear a big red patch instead of pants. So they decide to pretend that they have red pants. When they come to school, however, the Teacher sees red patches instead of pants. He tells them to return to school only when they have pants. The boys, on Nita's advice, make holes in the patches and sew the real colored patches onto them. To the boys' surprise, the Teacher at school accepts the patched pants. He explains to them that the previous day they had red patches, and now they have patched pants. This is because it is possible to patch pants, while patches cannot be patched.

Nino, a baker's apprentice from the kingdom of Lailonia, has a very beautiful face. He notices that wrinkles are appearing on it. He borrows money from the court and buys a trunk of immutability. He hides his beautiful face in the trunk and henceforth lives without a face. He claims that only by storing his face in the trunk of immutability can he ensure its eternal youth and immortal beauty. The neighbor demands the loan back. So Nino pawns his beautiful face in a pawnshop. He receives a sum less than he borrowed. He cannot repay the debt and is thrown in jail for many years. The owner of the pawnshop, not having lived to see Nino's return, takes his beautiful face out of his trunk and gives it to the children to play with as a ball. Only the imprisoned Nino thinks he has the most beautiful face in the world.

Tensions rise between a crew of a submarine when an accident causes it to settle at the bottom of the sea.