Maps on lining papers.

In the fall of 1981 in Bukowo, a small village on the Vistula River in southeast Poland. Here an important meeting has been called for a group of militant farmers, led by Janko Buk, to present their grievances and demands to the Minister of Agriculture, Szymon Bukowski, and other Communist officials. When the farmers insist that the local Catholic bishop join the discussion, Warsaw orders a four-week adjournment. Places between those two contemporary scenes covers eight important periods of Polish history, from the thirteenth century to the present day - a succession of heroic efforts, sometimes victorious often tragic, to repel invaders: Tartars, Germans, Swedes, Turks, Russians. By the end of the eighteenth century Poland has disappeared from the map of Europe, having been completely absorbed by Germany, Austria and Russia, a condition that prevailed until the end of the First World War. By 1920 the newly independent nation was strong enough to turn back a Soviet drive which was intended to conquer all of Europe, but two decades of freedom came to an appalling end in September 1939 with the Nazi and Soviet occupation, surpassing in brutality and viciousness even what had been experienced in the Polish past - the atrocities commited in places like Lublin and Majdanek are heartbreakingly portrayed.