Simona Kossak - daughter of the painter Jerzy Kossak and granddaughter of Wojciech - deprived of the talent that has defined her family for generations, grows up without knowing the warmth of her despotic mother. When, after graduation, she leaves everything - home, tradition, social conventions - and takes up a job as a scientist in Białowieża, she starts life on her own terms.
Budny, a secret service officer, secretly surveils Bishop Karol Wojtyla for 20 years. An unreciprocated bond forms between Budny and the unaware Wojtyla, leading to an obsessive, pathological relationship from Budny's perspective.