Wiktor Wiarecki is an unsuccessful writer. He is also not successful in his personal life: Wiktor's marriage is in crisis, and his adult son wants nothing to do with his father. The turning point is the death of his friend Wiarecki, an outstanding writer Stefan Przewłocki. A literary widow gives Wiktor the materials for the deceased's last novel.

The five participants in the meeting for the construction of a luxury hotel meet years later at its opening.

Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.

Two artists conduct philosophical disputes about practicing art.

Modest editor, has shipped his wife and kids for the weekend, and is trying to relax in his house at the outskirts of Warsaw. His quiet evening is only disturbed by the accidental forecast made by a Gypsy woman, that at evening time he will murder a mysterious brunet.

Janek and Wanda live in a small room in a villa, while other rooms are occupied by offices of various institutions. Janek often stays at work after hours, just to avoid returning to the cramped apartment too early. One day, a man named Malinowski, who once lived in the same small room, visits the couple. He proposes to exchange their room for a new, two-room apartment that he has just received. Janek and Wanda are initially distrustful, but eventually, the exchange takes place. It turns out that Wanda's ex-husband, Jerzy, already lives in the new apartment. Despite the divorce, as he is registered with Wanda, he has the right to continue living in her apartment. Janek tries to find a way to get rid of the intruder.

University student Anna and her boyfriend Tomek use a precious photograph to trace and unveil the complex wartime and post-war past of their parents.

Professionally active, childless, married woman loses her father during a business trip. With an overwhelming sense of transience and the fear of death, she doubts her attachment to her husband. It turns out that in marriage, too, he only plays his part, with greater or lesser conviction.

After completing a project, a shipbuilder grows restless and travels the country on his motorcycle. He leaves behind his wife, a woman of virtue and responsibility, as he goes off on his amorous drunken escapades. He is part of a lost generation whose economic and vocational prospects have been severely limited in the decades following World War II. His summer cabin on the Baltic beach is torn apart by drunken revelers to feed a bonfire in this brooding and often depressing film.