After the death of her aloof mother, she accepts an invitation to help exhume a mass grave in Poland. One of her motivations is that her mother has died without revealing anything substantial of Halina’s Polish history, and at this stage of her life, she wants to know more. In 1941, the Jews of the town were burned to death in a barn. The town's residents believe the Nazis did it, but rumors persist that it was the Polish people who committed the crime. The investigation is supposed to find out the truth but it only serves to bring out how deep seated the racial and religious history of Nowa Kalwaria has been.