Włodek is a young man stuck in a dead-end job at the local library who lives with his harridan wife and critical in-laws in a small apartment. When Włodek draws the interest of a library patron, the beautiful young woman encourages him to strive for better things in his life and professional career. Together, the two take off for a three-day affair, but surprises could await Włodek upon his return home.

The crusty hero, Habryka, is an old miner who has won many worker medals and is now retired with his youngest son and latter's family living with him. To build new apartment buildings, the old houses are being bought out, the residents given apartments in the new houses, and being cleared away. But Habryka refuses to sell.

Anna, a nurse, meets her wartime lover Marcel in 1951. Learning that he has been sentenced to death for his role in the Home Army, she hides him in her cellar for five years. She gets pregnant with his child and has the baby out of the wedlock. Despite the hardships and gossip she holds much better than he. In 1956 when the political climate changes, he resurfaces and is arrested, but then acquitted by the court.