An intimate psychological drama: the story of two brothers who, in the winter of 1848, waited for the opportunity to enter General Bem's troops in Hungary and experience emotional conflicts in a noble manor, which lead to a fundamental confrontation of attitudes and characters. The brothers Władysław and Henryk are waiting in the mansion of the Nawrocki family in Poznań for an emissary who is to lead them to the detachment of general Bem. But Henryk falls in love with Emilka, a pupil of the Nawrocki family, which leads to a sharp conflict. She is also loved by the heir of Nawrocki. Anyway, the spouses hate each other. She despises him as a simpleton, he cannot forget her illegitimate child with the forester. . . When Henryk decides, regardless of the consequences, to leave with Emilka, it reaches a tragic end. Henryk kills his rival and is arrested by Prussian gendarmes. Władysław, on the other hand, will implement his plan - he will break through to General Bem.