A two-part historical film covering the years of the First World War and the post-war period up to 1919 - until the signing of the peace treaty in Versailles near Paris. An attempt to show the great and complicated process of regaining an independent existence by a nation within its own state. The screen shows characters from history textbooks: Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Paderewski, Roman Dmowski, Wojciech Korfanty as well as representatives of the world political scene, incl. David Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, Vladimir Lenin and others.
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.
A story about the difficult experiences of a nine-year-old boy who tries to understand and assimilate the laws governing the world of adults. Left to himself, Tomek deeply experiences his anxieties and finally decides to rebel .
Film set during the Silesian Uprising in the 1920's. The German owners of a mine decide that it is unprofitable and want to close it by flooding it. The miners go on strike.
