In October 1934, a famous safe cracker in Warsaw criminal circles and also a jazz trumpeter, Henryk Kwinto, is released from a prison, where he has spent the past six years. After arriving home, he discovers that his wife has already found a substitute for him in the face of a police commissioner named Karelicki. Kwinto removes hidden roll of banknotes out of the chair's leg, places his key to the apartment on a table and leaves.
Near the city gates he is met by two younger petty criminals, brothers Moks and Nuta who have successfully debuted by robbing a jewel store and are now wishing to have the legendary safe-cracker as an accomplice. Kwinto by taking out of his pocket a mouthpiece of trumpet asserts that they had mistaken him for someone else and he is a musician. Although they seem to be confused, the brothers nonetheless tell him the address of their automobile shop in case if "Mr Musician would be willing to play together with them".
Kwinto rents a hotel room. Soon he is visited by his former accomplice and now a successful banker, Gustaw Kramer who informs him that six years ago Kwinto was arrested not by chance. Kramer who was caught in the act, then agreed to lure the elusive safe-cracker into a trap set up by the police. As a compensation for moral damages he brought Kwinto 45,000 złoty considering his betrayal as resolved. In response Kwinto advises not to tell him the address of his bank, to which Kramer is confident in the invulnerability of the bank's own safes reacts with a sneer and uses the phrase "ear of a herring"{?} (Polish: ucho od śledzia) hinting at the impossibility of robbing his bank....
Directed by Juliusz Machulski
Written by Juliusz Machulski
Starring Jan Machulski
Witold Pyrkosz
Leonard Pietraszak
Jacek Chmielnik
Krzysztof Kiersznowski
Music by Henryk Kuźniak
Cast
Jan Machulski – Henryk Kwinto, a former safecracker
Leonard Pietraszak – Gustaw Kramer, a former accomplice of Kwinto, today a successful banker
Witold Pyrkosz – Duńczyk, a friend and an accomplice of Kwinto
Jacek Chmielnik – Moks, a petty rascal
Krzysztof Kiersznowski – Nuta, a brother and an accomplice of Moks
Elżbieta Zającówna – Natalia, a Moks' fiancée
Marek Walczewski – Twerdiewicz, a prison warden
Tadeusz Proc – Tadeusz Rychliński
Ewa Szykulska – Marta Rychlińska, a widow of Tadeusz Rychliński
Zdzisław Kuźniar – Krempitsch, a professional killer
Józef Para – commissioner Przygoda, a police officer
Zbigniew Geiger – Stawiski, a secretary of Kramer
Zofia Grąziewicz – a wife of Kwinto
Janusz Michałowski – commissioner Karelicki, a police officer and a lover of Kwinto's wife
Ryszard Kotys – Melski
Henryk Bista – Jan Rożek
Warszawa lat 30. Kasiarz Kwinto wychodzi z więzienia i obmyśla zemstę na Kramerze, właścicielu banku, przez którego został aresztowany.