A group of astronauts leaves Earth to find freedom, and their spaceship crashes on an unnamed Earth-like planet. The astronauts, equipped with video-recorders, reach a seashore, where they build a village. After many years, only one member of the crew, Jerzy, is still alive, watching the growth of a new society, whose religion is based on mythical tales of an expedition from the Earth. The first off-Earth generation calls him the ''Old Man'', treating him as a demi-God. The Old Man leaves them and before his death sends his video diary back to Earth in a rocket. A space researcher named Marek (Andrzej Seweryn) receives the video diary and travels to the planet. When he arrives, he is welcomed by the cast of priests as the Messiah, who can release them from the captivity of the Szerns, indigenous occupants of the planet. Shortly afterwards, Marek organizes an army and enters the city of the Szerns. Meanwhile, the priests start to believe that Marek was an outcast from the Earth, rather than a messiah who came to fulfill the religious prophecy.