In Warsaw in the 1870s, a nouveau riche merchant, Wokulski, falls desperately in love with the beautiful daughter of an impoverished aristocrat. Despite her lack of wealth, she rejects him, subjecting the possessive man to every humiliation. Has makes brilliant use of his period background, setting the romantic story against the ignorance, poverty, and crude living conditions shared by all but the arrivistes and the complacent, indolent aristocracy. Like Wokulski, the new capitalists are paralyzed by the burdens of feudalism and romanticism. Has brought some of the stylistic maneuvers of The Saragossa Manuscript-the revealing lateral tracking shot, the surrealism of incident-into this seemingly more straightforward but epic narrative based on a massive Polish novel. The result is a "rich visual tapestry that gives the work an atmosphere of its own....Has becomes visually reminiscent of Bosch." (Derek Elley)