The Plot
After graduating from school, the young Tadeusz Soplica returns to the country estate. There’s no one there, since his uncle and caretaker Judge Soplica has gone on a walk in the woods with the other inhabitants. Walking around the house, Tadeusz enters his old room, where now a girl lives. Unfortunately she’s scared and escapes to the garden. This short meeting awakens the boy’s imagination and emotional turmoil unfolds in his mind. In the evening, during a dinner in the castle – which is the cause of conflict between the Soplicas and a count from the Horeszko family – Tadeusz comes to the conviction that the woman he saw was the coquettish Telimena and starts a romance with her. To his shock, soon he discovers that it’s young Zosia who lives in his room, and Telimena is her aunt. He doesn’t suspect the mysterious connection he has with Zosia. Zosia is Ewa Horeszko’s daughter, who was once forced to marry the rich Voivode against her will by her father Stolnik. Ewa’s love was Jacek Soplica, who killed the girl’s father, angry after the treatment he received. He was excluded by the local community and, due to an unfortunate coincidence, named an ally of the Russians, and then got lost somewhere in the world. Even though it happened many years earlier, Horeszko's faithful servant Gerwazy hasn’t abandoned the idea of revenge. The judge, Jacek’s younger brother, has been taking care of his son Tadeusz for many years. They haven’t seen Jacek Soplica, who only sends his brother orders through his secret emissary, Father Robak, who at the same time is preparing for a new uprising of the gentry against the Russian invader. Unfortunately, these preparations are spoiled by Gerwazy, who incites the gentry to attack the Soplicowo estate. His last foray into Lithuania provokes a premature explosion of anti-Russian rebellion.
