It's 1982: Poland is under martial law, and Solidarity is banned. Ulla, a translator working on Orwell, suddenly loses her husband, Antek, an attorney. She is possessed by her grief, and Antek continues to appear to her. She seeks to free herself in her work, in her relationship with her son, in sex, and in hypnosis. In a subplot, Ulla refers the wife of one of her husband's clients - Darek, a jailed Solidarity strike organizer - to Labrador, a world-weary, aging attorney, who works to free Darek by various political manipulations and psychological ploys.