The monotonous everyday life of an elderly couple is recorded almost silently in a time frame of three days. A woman and a man who have lived their whole lives together no longer have anything in common, apart from habit and the arguments that separate them.
After the death of a respected academician, who in his private life was a tyrant and a phony, the family awaits arrival of a prodigal son to begin the ceremony. However, the deceased has prepared a vengeance for his disappointing sons...
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.
Two scientists are chosen as guinea pigs for a time experiment: they are placed in hibernation and should be brought back to life after three years. In the meantime, however, World War III breaks out and life has been wiped off the surface of Earth. When they wake up, it turns out that not only 50 years have passed but also that they are the only living specimens of the male sex in a new, underground society composed exclusively of women.
Growing-up village boy Marcin Debik feels bored of existence in his native place and not interested in realizing his father's ideas for living there for ever and making business there. He dreams of living in a big town, making career there and, above all, having foreign automobile, preferably big one and of American make. His determination strengthens after he had accidentally attended some rich society's party for a while. Having finally decided to take his fate in his own hands, he takes leave of his family, his girl and departs for Lublin, the town where his uncle Lukasz runs own photographic studio.