Plot

When a political decision is made as to the location of a new large chemical factory, Stefan Bednarz is put in charge of it. This honest communist party man has to confront the local community opposing the construction.

Late 1960s. After discussions and negotiations, a decision is taken as to where a large new chemical factory is to be built and Bednarz, an honest party man, is put in charge. He used to live in the small town where the factory is to be built, his wife used to be a party activist there, and they both have unpleasant memories of it. But he sets to the task believing that he will build a place where people can work and earn well. His intentions and convictions, however, conflict with those of the townspeople who are primarily concerned with their short-term needs. Disillusioned, Bednarz gives up his post.—Polish Cinema Database <http://info.fuw.edu.pl/Filmy/>

1960s Poland. In behind closed doors discussions, the central government has decided the location for a new chemical factory will be the provincial town of Olecko. In justifying the location, the party line is that the factory will provide economic benefits of jobs and revitalization to the area. The party appoints Warsaw-based loyal party member Stefan Bednarz to the job of director of construction and ultimately of the factory itself, he a technocrat in being an engineer by trade and someone who was not in the room when the decisions on Olecko were made. He has mixed emotions in accepting the position, the negatives being that he and his wife lived in Olecko twenty years ago, she, also a Party official, trying to put a bad experience there behind her, and as such decides not to accompany her husband. And despite having some reservations about the location of the actual factory, he realizes that it is a job providing him with much clout, and he believes he can and will do a good job in providing for the town. He will find that he is caught in the middle, where the majority of the residents don't want the factory in the town for one reason or another, some of those reasons self-motivated, in addition to the factory itself destroying much of the landscape including part of a forest and an old residential neighborhood. On the other side, he has to tow what he knows of the party line, while in many instances he is kept in the dark about what is really going on. Adding to his problems are family issues above and beyond he being all alone in Olecko, the bigger family issue being his young adult daughter Eva who is at a rebellious stage of life.—Huggo