During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.
Two quarreling peasant families, who were forced to leave their lands after the war, are settled by accident on two neighboring farms.
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.
