Antoni Pszoniak

The film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively and harmlessly defused by a bomb expert. The presence of the bomb has a destroying effect on all of the Polish revolutionaries, they either die or breakdown.

After a disaster in the mine, Łopot, a technician, protects the perpetrator. He soon faces a moral dilemma.

Henryk Matula has flashbacks to being imprisoned in Auschwitz after he gives a lift to an American tourist who wants to see it