[1] The film is set in 1914 at the outset of World War I, focusing on Vladimir Lenin's time in exile in the village of Poronin, located in the Carpathian foothills on Polish lands within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Lenin, along with Nadezhda Krupskaya and her mother, Elizaveta Vasilievna, had previously visited Poronin two years before the war.

Despite being ordered to report to the prison in Nowy Targ voluntarily, Lenin delayed his departure to send urgent telegrams to influential Austrian social democrats.

The film portrays the events surrounding Lenin's arrest and the struggle for his release as a central storyline.

In the summers of 1913 and 1914 Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya rented a holiday home in Biały Dunajec and often stayed in a nearby Poronin inn.