A Polish writer is arrested by the Nazis in 1942 and sent to the notorious Pawiak prison in Warsaw. He will spend the next 111 days fighting for survival.

A story about the fate of two Krakow families, the action takes place in the years 1874-1914.

A teenage boy from a respectable family, Stanisław Czajkowski, dies in mysterious circumstances in a Krakow guesthouse. His brother-in-law, Count Maksymilian Rotter, married to Stanisław's older sister, Ksawera, is accused of the murder.