The mid-20th century in communist Poland. Adam lives with his mother, who is persecuted by the state security service. Adam's father fought in World War II as a pilot, defending Britain, and has not been heard from since. It's not clear if he stayed in England or returned and is hiding to avoid persecution. Packages and postcards arrive from him, but Adam, who has never seen his father, suspects someone else is sending them. At school he keeps dreaming that his father will one day land in the sports field at his school in his Spitfire, raising dust from which he will emerge alive, heroic and magnificent. One day, as the boy is watching Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt" at the cinema, he is transported to the young Brigitte Bardot's dressing room and her world of film and music stars.