리자(알렉산드라 슬라스카 분)는 아우슈비츠에서 SS감독관으로 있었던 자신의 과거에 대해 두 가지 다른 회상을 들려준다. 첫 번째 회상은 전쟁이 끝난 수 독일로 돌아가는 화려한 쾌속선에서 남편에게 들려주는 불온한 부분을 삭제한 버전이다. 그녀는 서로 사랑하는 사이인 남녀 수감자가 만날 수 있게 호의를 베풀었지만 그 이상 그들의 운명에 관여할 힘은 없었다고 말한다. 리자가 혼자 회상하는 두 번째 버전에서는 그녀의 동기가 좀더 복잡하고 모호하며 여자 수감자에 대한 집착적 관계가 드러난다.
Set at the end of the war. A hot-headed colonel tries to force his men on to heroics although the war is almost over. A war-weary lieutenant tries to muffle his efforts but he keeps on with his men and is killed fighting in the front lines, all his men decide to get his body.
Three separate stories depicting the tense everyday life during occupation, as seen through the eyes of children. In “On the Road,” the two main protagonists are lost in the September’s strife: a young boy, and a soldier transporting the valueless documents of his broken unit. In “Letter from the Concentration Camp” the story’s protagonists are young boys who help their mother during the hardships of the occupation. Their treasure is an officer uniform belonging their father who is being held in a prisoner of war camp. In “Blood Drop,” the Germans find a set of typical Aryan characteristics in this story’s protagonist – a Jewish girl, hiding in an orphanage.
To convince the prison warden against releasing him, a middle-aged Polish man recounts his life, one he considers to have been characterized by exceptionally bad luck.
Rumsza, the elderly railwayman, leading a sedate life with his wife, misses his only remaining son (two older boys were killed in the war). Joziuk finally returns from the military in the first scene but with the pregnant Zosia, while Rumsza expected him to marry Celinka, the daughter of Krywka, his only friend and neighbour. The hero will not accept the new situation; he throws his son and Zosia out of his house. Celinka is distressed but she still harbours hope for Joziuk. The birth of the child changes the situation: Rumsza accepts his son's relationship but Celinka decides to leave.
