Hard-charging student Agnieszka (Janda) wants to make a thesis film for Polish television about a faded Communist ideologue from the 1950s, a heroic bricklayer named Birkut (Radziwilowicz). After viewing censored footage of Birkut in his prime, as he leads a team of laborers erecting a government home in record time, Agnieszka is driven to know what led to his fall from favor. Thus begins an odyssey into her country's disturbing past.

One of Wajda's most politically daring films, "Marble" was censored upon release, yet it resonates with the same animus for corruption that ultimately drove the Soviets from power. Agnieszka's difficulties with a wary producer and the reluctance of her interview subjects to speak on-camera parallel the story of an idealized worker, movingly depicted by Radziwilowicz, banished for challenging Party authority. Employing a "Citizen Kane"-like story structure, Wajda cleverly satirizes both the filmmaking impulse as well as government distortions of truth.