During September 1939, Poland was invaded, in the west by Nazi troops and in the east by the Red Army. It is the beginning of the Second World War. Thousands of soldiers and Polish officers are arrested by the Russians and deported to concentration camps. At the behest of Stalin in 1940 about 20,000 of them will be killed and buried in mass graves in the forest near Katyn. The responsibility for the incident was dumped on the German army, and the truth was silted up until 1990 when Russia finally admitted its faults. Telling the story of his country, Wajda also narrates his own story and the memory of his father's loss. Through the character of Katyn revisits the story of Anna, the wife of a Cavalry officer surrended to the enemy invasion. At the woman's proposal to return to Krakow, Andrzej refuses to take off his uniform and to be unfaithful to his nation and awaiting his fate, he starts with the others to get on the train to the east, while Anna tries to return to the hometown.