A young woman traveling to Poland with her employer meets a count, and they fall in love as World War II begins.
It is early 1939 in Poland when Mrs. Bromley and Jennifer come to buy antiques for her business in London. Jennifer meets Count Stephen and they wine, dine and see the sights though out the city. He wishes to marry, but his family is against plain Jennifer. When she tries to leave, he catches her at the train station and they are married. To be self sufficient, they modernize the family farm with tractors and increase production, but then Germany starts the war.—Tony Fontana <[email protected]>
In March, 1939, Mrs. Bromley, an English decorator, and her assistant, Jennifer Whittredge, travel through Poland in search of antiques. When they reach Warsaw, Jenny is left on her own while Mrs. Bromley haggles with an antique dealer. Passing by the window of the store, Count Stephan Orvid mistakes Jenny for a clerk and asks to see a musical watch. Jenny explains that she is not a clerk, but is prevented from getting to know Stephan better by the return of Mrs. Bromley. Later that same night, Jenny and Mrs. Bromley run into Stephan at the opera, and Stephan invites Jenny to join him afterward for supper. Although Jenny gets very drunk at supper, Stephan realizes that she is not just a cheap pickup, and insists on showing her Warsaw the next day. After a week of sightseeing, Stephan asks Jenny to marry him and she accepts. Things do not go smoothly, however, when Stephan brings Jenny to meet his aristocratic family. Although Uncle Leopold believes that Jenny will bring new energy into the family, he is too concerned about the massing of German troops on the Czechoslovakian border to offer much support. Stephan's sister Janina looks down on Jenny, as does his mother Zofya. The head of the family, Stephan's uncle Pavel, a Nazi sympathizer, is opposed to the marriage, and presents an unpleasant picture of the consequences of the marriage on Stephan's career. Afterward, Jenny runs away, planning to return to England with Mrs. Bromley. Stephan finds Jenny at the station and convinces her to marry him and help him become independent. Together they mechanize the family's farming estate and arrange to share the profits with the peasants. Later, during a harvest party, Pavel accuses Jenny of destroying the family's traditions and insists that as the head of the family, he be consulted before more changes are made. Before Stephan can respond, bombs are heard in the distance, and the family realizes that despite Poland's non-aggression treaty with Germany, Warsaw is being bombed. Stephan's cavalry regiment is then called up, and Jenny busies herself with the harvest. One night, Stephan returns home after his entire regiment is destroyed by German tanks. Then, over the radio, a call goes out for all citizens to defend Warsaw against the Germans. With the approval of the peasants, Stephan burns the harvest and the house so that the Germans will not be able to use them. Janina, Zofya and Pavel prepare to leave the country and beg Stephan and Jenny to accompany them. Stephan refuses, however. Twenty-eight days later, the city falls, and Stephan and Jenny join the flocks of refugees who are leaving the city to wait for the day that Poland is once again free.
