ln the midst of Nazi occupied Poland, Witold a writer brings Frederic a theatre director, to visit the country estate of his friend Hipolit. Gradually, Witold begins to suspect that the guest he has brought has supernatural powers and is in the midst of playing some kind of psychological game. The object of the game is to encourage a romantic relationship between Karol the son of a friend of Witold and Hipolt′s attractive daughter Henia who is already engaged to Waclaw a young man of good standing. The game seems harmless enough, and certainly inconsequential when compared to the atrocities of the Nazi invasion. However when Witold and Frederic travel to meet Waclaw′s mother Amelia to further their provocative scheme, the stakes are raised considerably. Amelia′s religious fundamentalism is as strong as Frederic′s atheism and the pair become locked in a battle of clever rhetoric. But when a violent and unexpected death occurs, Frederic′s manipulations and atheist intellectualism suddenly don′t appear so harmless.