Halina Winiarska

Barbara is a forty-year-old woman of Polish origin living in Budapest. She is a biologist, a wife and a mother. The death of her woman friend opens her eyes to the fact that she is lonely, unable to find her place.

When a political decision is made as to the location of a new large chemical factory, Stefan Bednarz is put in charge of it. This honest communist party man has to confront the local community opposing the construction.

Twenty years old prostitute and drug addict, Jola, by chance meets Andrzej, a "railway station gay". They try to stay together, in spite of numerous diffculties. They both are carriers of the HIV virus. At the end of their travels they find themselves in the Red Palace - formerly the recreation centre for Party dignitaries, now a home for AIDS sufferers - which is run by father Jan. In the nearby small town aggression begins to grow again the unwanted guests; the house have been promised to the local people for housing purposes... The lives and fates of Jola, Andrzej, and father Jan become increasingly intertwined with one another...

Zenon Ziembiewicz, a young, budding journalist, comes to his parents' manor house for a vacation. Here he enters into an affair with the lovely Justyna Bogutówna, the daughter of a cook. When the canicule comes to an end, Zenon packs his bags and leaves for Paris to study. Returning after a year with a doctorate in political science, he makes a fast and glamorous career. He becomes the editor-in-chief of the local newspaper and, soon after, mayor of the city. He also marries Elzbieta Biecka, but still does not break up with Justyna.

Two teenagers try to live together as adults, but new responsibilities overwhelm them.

Jan, an accountant at pre-retirement age, is on holiday at the Baltic Sea with his wife. He doesn’t enjoy her company. He doesn’t enjoy other people’s company either. The resort’s atmosphere makes him sick. One day he meets a mysterious girl on the beach. She becomes his spiritual guide.

Zofia and Julia, a mother and daughter, share a home but inhabit two completely different worlds. Zofia, a refined woman of society who seems to have been left behind in another era, is utterly detached from reality. Julia, a pharmacist and herbalist, leads a quiet, ordinary life. Dependent on her daughter for even the simplest aspects of everyday life, Zofia cannot function without her. Though Julia is increasingly weary of living with her mother, she cannot bring herself to break the bond between them.