Working from Rolf Hochhuth’s wartime chronicle of the relationship between a Polish prisoner of war (Lysak) and a German shopkeeper (Schygulla), Wajda created a work able to capture not only the collective past but an aspect of contemporary German culture. Told in flashback by the shopkeeper’s son, the story unfolds in a sleepy Bavarian town where the Pole has been assigned to work. Despite explicit prohibitions against fraternizing with the enemy, a passionate affair soon develops. The terrible consequences fuse the predictable reaction of fascist rule with the petty jealousies and unneighborly betrayals that typify small-town life.