Ogniem i Mieczem plot
Poland-Lithuania in the Seventeenth Century. The Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, are revolting against the Polish landowners and nobility, trying to reclaim their old territory. The Polish prince Wisniowiecki fights them with extreme ferocity, but when the Cossacks unite with the Tatars, he is forced to retreat to the castle of Zbaraz. There he sends one of his commanders, the knight Skrzetuski, on a mission. Skrzetuski then meets the beautiful Helena and falls in love with her, but Bohun, one of the Cossack leaders, is also in love with her. And slowly the rivalry of both nemesis unfolds.