Conta a história do sacerdote católico polonês que foi preso no campo de concentração nazista de Auschwitz. O filme se passa em julho de 1941 e mostra Maximiliano Kolbe que dá a sua vida por outro prisioneiro, um homem de família inocente condenado à morte por inanição em represália por uma fuga.
Jacek, an angry drifter, murders a taxi driver, brutally and without motive. His case is assigned to Piotr, an idealistic young lawyer who is morally opposed to the death penalty, and their interactions take on an emotional honesty that throws into stark relief for Piotr the injustice of killing of any kind.
A young farm boy spends his days dreaming and making totem-pole like sculptures out of wood. His brother is a go-getter: studies agricultural engineering, comes back with diploma to marry the pretty girl next door. The dreamer graces puts his sculptures around, invoking anger of his father and ridicule of the peasants who find him useless. During the brother's wedding he sets his totems ablaze. He makes a pass at his new sister-in-law, but returns to his own reveries. In the end he hears a call to bring a log out of the marshes, but during the escapade sinks into the bog.
