The life story of Franciszek Murka, a municipal official. He is dismissed from his job as a result of unfounded slander about his alleged left-wing political past. After losing his government job, he assumes the identity of a foreigner named Franz Klamm and makes a career for himself in the aristocratic salons of Warsaw as a master of the occult.

Zenon Ziembiewicz comes back to his hometown after graduating from the university in Paris. He gets entangled in a love triangle with educated young lady Elzbieta and a common country girl Justyna who gets pregnant.