The protagonist of the film, Professor Wilczur, from whom his wife left with their beloved daughter, seeks solace in alcohol. Severely injured in the head during a fight in a suburban tavern, he loses his memory. Fifteen years pass. The police detain a man wandering in the countryside without documents, who doesn’t know his own name. To avoid arrest, the vagabond steals from a clerk’s desk the birth certificate of a certain Antoni Kosiba. From that moment on, he travels the country under that name.