Zbigniew Jankowski

An idealistic young cellist becomes dissatisfied with her relationship with a poor student who thinks primarily of money.

The main character is a bookkeeper, 40, who lives a quiet, uninteresting life with her husband and son of school age. She realizes that soon she won't be needed much at home as the boy grows up and the relationship with her husband crumbles. It's only when an embezzlement is discovered at the office and she stands up to her management, that she realizes life has more to offer. She meets a well-off former classmate, married to an American. Then she meets Jacek and starts contemplating possibilities of a new start. She discovers love for the first time, but turns to old ways rather than to break loose.

Spring 1923. Krzysztof Grabień, the son of a teacher from a village near Przeworsk, arrives on the Polish coast encouraged by news of the construction of a port in Gdynia. Next to a point recruiting workers, Krzysztof meets Volodya Yazovetsky. The peer persuades him to go into an illegal but profitable business. At the garkuchnya works Lucka Konka, whom Krzysztof likes with reciprocity. Volodya meets French engineers who are to help build the wharves of a future port.

Antoni Krauze reminds one of the darkest history of the cards with PRL. Spectacular reconstruction of the dramatic events in Gdynia, ended a brutal pacification of demonstrators by troops and militia in 1970.