The story takes place during the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. The land has been thrown into a chaotic state of affairs accompanied by frequent changes of the local government. In Moravia we find the protagonist Kajetan, conscientious landlord of a wealthy townsman, who escaped to safety of Silesian Cracow to avoid war dangers. Kajetan is trying, at all costs, to protect his own life and also lives of his wife and grooms from the looting and pillaging armies.