A screen adaptation of Pola Gojawiczyńska’s novel of the same title, the film depicts the coming of age of a bunch of friends who live in Warsaw’s borough of Nowolipki, their attitudes and consequences of their life choices.
The last years before the Great War. Franka, Kwiryna, Bronka and Amelka are about to graduate from the grammar school. The girls would like to continue their education, but their parents have their own, economically-motivated plans for them. Bronka’s father refuses to financially support his daughter, while Amelka’s mother is desperate to marry her child off the soonest possible. The friends realize that changing their lives for the better will be very hard. They fall in love for the first time. This experience will shape them forever. Franka is raped by a newly acquainted actor. Soon, the poverty will force her to prostitute herself. Amelka gets pregnant by her lover, clerk Michałowski, who persuades her into terminating the pregnancy. Kwiryna’s parents are murdered. War breaks out. Bronka does not receive any information from her beloved Ignaś and sinks into depression. Amelka chooses to enter into a marriage of convenience. A pharmacist from Leszno borough becomes her fiancé. Franka falls ill with typhoid fever and gets hospitalized. After her discharge, she works as a housekeeper in the house of a dignified professor whom she falls in love with. Scorned, she takes her own life by poison. Depressed Bronka is seduced by Różycki. Watching the Polish legions march down the street, she notices Ignaś among the cavaliers.
