Tomek is 14 and a good student. He's interested in astronomy and plays football to please his father. The only thing is, he lives in a poor little border town plagued by unemployment, whereas across the river lies Germany with all its relative affluence. Tomek meets Marta at a disco and falls in love with her. He starts to think up ways of earning money in order to keep her interested. He approaches a pimp who seeks out local boys for his German clients. Tomek has no idea of the brutal fate which awaits him.

Police arrest two brothers, Artur and Martin, at their aunt's provincial motel and escort them to jail in the capital. Unfolding in flashback, the film seeks out the motives for the crime they have committed. How did such irrational evil germinate in boys from a good family? Mother Teresa loves her two sons and sympathizes with her husband Hubert, a professional soldier traumatized by his experiences in Iraq. She helps music student Eva who lives with them and cares for their autistic daughter Jadza, and she is kindhearted to stray cats as well, allowing them to fill up their large apartment. Twenty-two-year-old Artur, fascinated by psychotronics, falls prey to the illusion of his own extraordinariness. He has his younger brother Martin completely under his control and their mother suspects nothing. His sense of superiority is confirmed by his father's growing impotence, and he scorns the man for investing his retirement bonus foolishly...