A reclusive lighthouse worker accepts the offer to swap jobs with a police inspector for a while, just to help him catch Teston, the so-called criminal of criminals.
Zbigniew Cybulski and Sonja Ziemann play lovers struggling to find happiness and privacy in overcrowded Warsaw. The movie shows an honest picture of life in a war-damaged city, contrasting the characters' difficulties with their dreams of a better life. It was banned in Poland in 1958 and would not been seen anywhere until its European release one year later.