Stanisław Maria Rochowicz, a bumbling art historian, is falsely accused of stealing a painting. The alleged thief faces five years in prison. Desperate, he decides to hide in disguise as a woman until he can paint a copy of the stolen canvas. Lacking means to live, he takes jobs as a maid for a variety of colorful characters.
The Italian soldier Giuseppe Santucci, on his way home from the Russian front has his machine gun stolen in Warsaw. Afraid of consequences, he stays in Warsaw and occupies a flat of the Polish girl Maria, whom he suspects of stealing weapon. Maria indeed is an active member of the Polish resistance, contrary to her brother, Staszek, a painter, who only wants a calm living. In a course of events Giuseppe falls in love and, along with Staszek, becomes a hero of the Polish resistance.
Westerplatte is a small peninsula at the entry to the Gdańsk Harbour. Before World War II, it functioned as a Polish ammunition depot in the Free City of Danzig. Its crew consisted of one infantry company and a group of civilians, 182 people in total. It was the only Polish guard-post at the mouth of the Vistula River, with as little as five sentries, one field cannon, two anti-armour guns and four mortars. The first shots of World War II were fired there. This film tells the story of Westerplatte's courageous defenders.
