The miners of one of the mines in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie receive news about the planned layoffs. The miners decide to organize a strike. One of the local MPs is trying to prevent this from happening. The French mine owner makes a dangerous decision - he orders the miners to work in an area at risk of fire. An explosion occurs unexpectedly. The miners lynch Coeur, and their demonstration, in which they carry the bodies of the victims of the crash, is brutally suppressed by the police.
The 1937 trial of communist journalists, working for the same student magazine in Vilnius, is shown through the tragic life of the paper's young collaborator Julek Szulc.