Based upon the mining disaster of 1923 in the "Reden" coal mine of Dombrowa Górnicza, Poland: miners in one of the mines in Dombrowa Basin receive new of planned redundancies, and they go on strike, one of the local members of parliament trying to prevent it. The French owner of the mine makes the dangerous decision of requiring the miners to work around hazardous fire. After many miners die in a sudden explosion, they lynch the manager and take to the streets, carrying the bodies of victims of the disaster. They are brutally repressed by the police.