It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize workers' right to an independent union.

[6] Activist Maciek Tomczyk, the son of Man of Marble's hero Mateusz Birkut, is leading a shipyard strike in Gdańsk against the Communist authorities.

After his father's death, Tomczyk married Agnieszka, whom he had met when making a documentary about Birkut's career as a well-publicized Stakhanovite worker hero.

Despite being blackmailed by the secret police for a drunk driving crash in his past, Winkel ultimately refuses to complete his assignment and resigns from his job.

A government official warns that the agreement is "only a piece of paper," but Tomczyk tells his father's memorial that the strikers have "made it through the worst."