On his way home, Mikołaj Twardowski is attacked by bandits. He calls on the devil for help, who rescues him from danger. The devil's intentions are not selfless. Twardowski signs a pact with Hell, unaware of what he is agreeing to. Eighteen years pass, and the devil appears at Mikołaj's house with the intention of taking his son away. The cautious Twardowski, just before his death, sends his son to a hermit, who advises him on how to steal the contract his father signed.

Karol sits for hours in a wardrobe in a rented room on the attic, looking back on his whole life. He was brought up by a single mother who loved his only child with a sick desperate feeling and limited all his world to her own person. Karol's tragedy began with his adolescence. It made his mother aware of her feminity that resulted in her new marriage. Together with a new husband she decided to send the boy to a school for retarded children. Upon leaving the school Karol starts to seek his longing mother who moved out, in a meanwhile, not giving any address.

The story of six Polish emigrants living in New York City, who try to live their American Dream and cope with the realities of the Big Apple.