Wajda's homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, the "Polish James Dean" who starred in the director's ASHES AND DIAMONDS and died young. The movie follows the tribulations of a director attempting to make a movie with a Cybulski-like star who never shows up.
Major Henryk "Hubal" Dobrzański refuses to surrender to the Germans in the wake of the 1939 campaign and continues to lead his regiment in guerilla warfare against the invaders.