Helena Rolandowa

The village clerk, Zołzikiewicz, sets his sights on Rzepowa, a beautiful but unattainable woman. He arranges for her drunken husband, unaware of what he is doing, to sign a declaration agreeing to serve in the army in place of the village headman’s son. Left alone with her child, Rzepowa faces poverty and the threat of Zołzikiewicz’s advances. Desperate for understanding and help, she turns to the court, the local authorities, the priest, the manor, and the district authorities. Finding help nowhere, she eventually gives herself to Zołzikiewicz, who has promised to destroy Rzepa’s signed declaration in return. He breaks his promise, however. Desperate and enraged, Rzepa kills his wife and sets fire to the manor house. The film has not survived.

Jan Leszczyc meets Amelia Holska at the bedside of his sick mother and he falls in love with her. Both he and Amelia do not know that her father Józef Holski is an international hotel thief. Persuaded by Torense, his former accomplice, he steals pearls from Julia's apartment, Jan's friend, and gives them to his daughter. She ends up in jail when the diamonds on her neck are recognized as stolen. Holski and Torense are hiding from the police. The depressed Leszczyc does not want to marry the criminal's daughter, but the criminal past of Leszczyc's father soon comes to light.