Time to Die is the story of the elderly Aniela and her life in what once was a grand and beautiful house. During the Communist regime she was forced to share her home with other comrades, but as the last of them leaves her house Aniela is left alone with only her border collie, Philadelphia, her attentive and constant companion. Her 50-year-old son, Wituś, occasionally visits, accompanied by his overweight 10-year-old daughter who Aniela finds a spoiled, demanding and undisciplined brat. Aniela blames her daughter-in-law, Marzenka, for her son's and granddaughter's laziness.
To one side of her lives a family who host a rather noisy children's music club that Aniela spies on daily and she is often taunted by and bothered by the local kids. On the other side is a nouveau riche couple, apparently scheming with Aniela's cold-hearted and greedy son to buy her old timber house, demolish it and build a modern apartment building on its site. Everybody it seems wants Aniela's house, or her land, so she finds a way to outsmart them all. Aniela is no fool – as she spies and learns of her neighbours' ways and true intentions she is always ahead of the game, and some surprises may yet be in store for those who are not wise to her thinking and abilities.
Throughout much of the film, which is shot entirely in black and white, we follow Aniela inside her house, with fractured views at the hostile world outside through its multitude of unevenly-glazed windows. There are also soft-focus slow-motion scenes in which the young Aniela is seen dancing in the moonlight as a young bride or playing with her young son, recalling the wonderful memories of her younger days. In the end Aniela comes to terms in some way with the difficulties she faces and makes peace with those who deserve to have peace made with them.
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