Written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the film is about a young post office worker deeply in love with a promiscuous older woman who lives in an adjacent apartment building.

[1] Nineteen-year-old Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko) lives in an apartment complex in Warsaw with his godmother (Stefania Iwinska) - staying in her son's room while he is away.

Tomek has been spying on a beautiful older woman, Magda (Grażyna Szapolowska), who lives in an adjacent apartment complex.

Tomek's obsession is focused more on her everyday activities rather than her sex life; when he sees her becoming sexual with men, he throws the telescope away and does not watch.

One night he sees her return home after breaking up with her latest boyfriend, spilling a bottle of milk, and then weeping over another failed relationship.

Overwhelmed by his feelings, Tomek rushes up to the roof of the building, and then returns to Magda's apartment and asks her for a date — and she accepts.

After Tomek rushes out of her apartment embarrassed and upset, Magda feels guilty and tries to communicate with him through her window—gesturing for him to call her and holding up a sign that reads, "Come back.

[Note 1] Noticing the telescope, Magda looks through it toward her own apartment and imagines what Tomek must have seen that night, watching her come home, spilling the milk, and weeping over another failed relationship.

[3] The original version ends with Tomek back at work, recovered from his attempted suicide, and telling Magda that he does not watch her anymore.

In his review in The New York Times, Stephan Holden wrote that the film "which has rich, subtly shaded performances by Mr. Lubaszenko and Miss Szapolowska, has a bleak eloquence.

[5] Also reviewing at the San Francisco Chronicle, Gary Kamiya wrote, "Kieslowski has crafted a compelling portrait of love, that weed that forces its strange way through life's hardest cement.

"[6] In his review on Cinema Sights, James Blake Ewing called the film, "a complex and perplexing examination of a simple rule" and praised the outcome: It's this synthesis of emotionally powerful storytelling and cinematic overdrive that makes A Short Film About Love such an unforgettable and unrelenting experience on every level.