Janusz Rzeszewski

In 1943, a drunk cook is mistaken for a secret agent and sent on a special mission from London to Nazi-occupied Poland.

On the way to Warsaw after a crude oil fraud in southern Poland, conman Adam Deren meets singer Liza. He decides to invest his money in a venture deemed to be a failure - a small cabaret where Liza could perform.

Hanka Ordonówna is a star of pre-war Polish cabarets. The film begins in 1942 in the Middle East, in a British military camp located near the front line. Hanka runs a shelter for homeless Polish children. In her moments of respite, the singer, who is suffering from tuberculosis, recalls the various stages of her career.

The revue theater "Red Mill" is in crisis, the owner has no money to pay the salaries of the employees. When the bailiff hands the director an order to seize the theater's assets, an elegant gentleman engineer Fred Kampinos unexpectedly appears and offers his help.