In a polemical letter to a magazine editor, Tom contests an article’s portrayal of his time as a resistance fighter during WWII. Rumored at the time to be the illegitimate son of Poland’s revered Marshal Pilsudski, Tom abruptly found himself the symbolic heir to Polish nationalism when German forces occupy Warsaw. In his efforts to win the affections of a leading actress of the Warsaw stage, and to protect her from the dangers of the real Resistance, he conceived of an imaginary political cadre, “Rondo” and conscripted his beloved actress into it. The idea is innocent at first, but through its own comic momentum, Rondo becomes a major force in the Polish underground. As Tom is drawn into the internal politics of the Resistance, the results are disastrous.

Kazimierz Brandys
Kazimierz Brandys was born in Poland in 1916. He was awarded numerous prizes, including the Jurzykowski (1982), Prato-Europa (1986) and Ignatio Silone (1986). Brandys was made a member of the French Order of Fine Arts and Literature in 1993. He died in France in 2000.