 A Christmas story. Shame, promises, and secrets in a border town in Poland. Iwonka, who s 15 and blood simple, has a baby, and her mother Halina has promised her recently-dead husband that she ll learn who the child s father is and have a christening by Christmas. Halina badgers Iwonka who identifies various putative fathers, each of whom proves not to be the one. As we come closer to Iwonka s secret, two men who liked Halina when she was young come to her aid: Wladek, who is her husband s brother, and Matuszek, a somewhat comic former cyclist whose career ended when he ran into a bus. Soldiers are everywhere, as is the cold. Will the baby find a father?