After the war, the community of mountaineers is eager to start their own sawmill. When the communist authorities come to take over the sawmill, a rebellion starts.
In 1668 Polish colonel Michał Wołodyjowski, who recently retired to a monastery, is recalled to active duty and takes charge of Poland's eastern frontier defenses against invading Tatar hordes and Ottoman armies.
A retired army colonel learns that years ago, during the 1939 September Campaign he was ordered to give medals to the ten bravest soldiers in his company. He asks his son to help him out, so he sets out on a journey to find surviving soldiers and judge if they are worthy of the honor.
Krzysztof Zanussi's groundbreaking film chronicles a decade in the life of a young physics student whose absolute faith in the primacy of rationality and science is shaken by tragedy and affairs of the heart.