Set in the realities of post-war Poland, the film tells the story of mourning parents setting off on their last journey with their son, as seen from the point of view of their grandson Jan. The son of Hanna and Jacob, a Home Army soldier Waclaw "Odrowaz" Szewczyk, is shot by the secret police in the autumn of 1946.

After suffering a series of humiliations by the new authorities, who continuously desecrate their child's corpse, Hanna and Jacob decide to provide their son with a proper burial in the Paclawska Calvary, 500 km away. Their venture through Poland - a country still haunted by the post-war nightmare, becomes a metaphorical journey into the depths of the human soul and an attempt to reorder the world in which neighbors turn against each other, and where one's current enemy may become an unexpected ally.