Among those Poles who fought in the unsuccessful insurrection against Russia in 1863 was Count Wladislaw Jampolski. Because of his treason, he suffered imprisonment and confiscation of his lands. But Jampolski's disgrace turned out to be Calman Jacoby's good fortune. Calman, a pious Jew who made his living as a grain merchant, was given the opportunity to lease the manor lands of the Count. Calman-thrifty, industrious, honest-in one sense understood the times in which he was living: Poland was emerging from the Middle Ages and all over the country railroads, highways, and modern cities were being built. The timber on the Count's land that Calman sold for railway ties became the basis of his fortune. But in another sense Calman belonged to the world that was passing away. Calman's innate conservatism made him suspicious of the new revolutionary ideas rising everywhere around him.It is the impact of this rising new secular civilization upon Calman and his family that forms the core ofThe MANOR.