In 1991, Maks Paradys, Jerzy Stuhr, and Albert Starski, Olgierd Łukaszewicz, volunteer for the first human hibernation experiment led by professor Wiktor Kuppelweiser, Janusz Michałowski. They expect to wake up three years later, in 1994, but instead find themselves in a stark, post-nuclear world in the year 2044 where the idea of two genders clashes with a strictly controlled society. They briefly believe they are in a clinic tended by women, and Max grows drawn to Lamia, a key figure in this new order.
Soon they learn that the professor “doesn’t exist,” and that a war long past has supposedly eradicated male genes. The men remain under constant surveillance, and Lamia explains that the population reproduces through parthenogenesis. A tense briefing follows, during which Max kisses Lamia; she knocks him down and warns both men of euthanasia. Yet that kiss awakens something in her as well, stirring long-suppressed passions.
During their first real briefing, the two men glimpse a future they never asked for. They are introduced to Her Excellency, the supreme ruler of the women’s world, and are permitted to venture outside a bi sanctuary to scout for food. They stumble upon a sacred apple tree and, tired of synthetic fare, eat two tiny apples, feeling the urge to understand the old world’s ways. At the meeting with Her Excellency, they ask what womankind did to mankind; the response is chilling: the old order was dismantled not by the women alone, but by a scientist whose work supposedly aimed to paralyze male genes, ultimately destroying them. Max suggests they could serve as reproducers to repopulate the male line, but the women reject the notion of returning to the old order. The assembly speaks of a paradise lost—an Arch Mother’s tale about an apple that led to the fall—and the tension in the room boils over.
When Max and Albert escape by sabotaging the power grid, their luck runs out and they are recaptured. The regime subjects them to a brutal choice: undergo “naturalization” through sex-reassignment or face liquidation. They refuse, and a dramatic trial follows in which women denounce male oppression and venerate the new order. The verdict: naturalization is approved by a single vote, forcing the men to flee again.
Their escape leads them to bands of women who have rejected the regime, including those living in a more anarchic “decadency.” The two are misidentified as government spies and are pursued by security forces. In the ensuing chaos, Lamia appears again, guiding them toward a way out—a periscope that reveals the world above ground. The outside is not what they expected: elevated radiation levels from the war-haunted landscape hint at danger, a consequence of Kuppelweiser’s forgotten project. Lamia’s help, however, is complicated and soon clear: she has lured them to her own end, intending to trap them for surgery.
Back in the hospital complex, Lamia and her allies are celebrated for their scientific work, but their triumph is short-lived. The regime’s top authorities—The Excellency and her circle—prepare to harvest male organs for transplantation and to study their remains as a protein supply, because the food shortage looms large. Dr. Yanda, a veteran doctor and Max’s old ally, is revealed to be an elderly surgeon who now harbors a personal vendetta, as she is revealed to be Max’s daughter. Lamia sabotages the operation in a bid for revenge for Lamia and his research, but the plan is complicated by the regime’s iron grip.
In the periscope room, Lamia confronts the guards and warns that a password is required to activate a capsule to reach the surface. Max, exasperated, shouts a furious Polish expletive, and the capsule fires. The trio breaks through to the surface world, stepping into a barren, wind-swept landscape beyond the underground mines. They shed their protective suits and press on, guided by a determination to survive. A temporary shelter—an isolated villa—appears, where they feast, but Emma, a key ally, is captured with a harpoon by the surviving regime. Albert rushes to save her with CPR, and the two survive the ordeal, though the broadcast they see on a television screen tells a very different story, declaring Lamia and Emma dead and presenting Max and Albert as “naturalized” and well.
Max and Lamia retreat to a bedroom, where he attempts to explain what mating means while Albert pursues his own chance at happiness with Emma. In the residence’s living area, Her Excellency reveals her true nature: she is not the benevolent ruler she appears to be. The reveal comes when her disguise is stripped away during a confrontation in which Max discovers that the “Her Excellency” is secretly a man who avoided women his entire life, hiding among the League of Women. He explains that society’s fear of sexual desire is a deliberate distraction, and the government has been falsifying radiation warnings to keep the population compliant. The three form a fragile, uneasy alliance: Max, Albert, Lamia, and Emma will coexist under this new arrangement rather than permit the old world’s male eradication to resume.
Months pass, and the group works within their unusual arrangement, with Max and Albert discreetly contributing male gametes to incubators in an effort to restart the male population. A nurse, wrapping newborns in blankets, makes a shocking discovery: the newborns include a penis, signaling that the plan to restore the balance is already beginning to take hold. The film ends on this provocative note, challenging the female-led society’s claim to progress and suggesting that life—and the future—may still hold room for change.
