In anticipation of the return from earnings from St. Petersburg of the wicked man Ananiy Yakovlev, “a proud, original person, working and economic, in a festively cleaned hut, anxiously glancing at the marked road, two old women are talking - Spiridonevna and Matryona, mother of Lizaveta, wife of Ananias, in the absence of her husband, who entered into a love affair with the young landowner Cheglov-Sokovin and a child who survived from him.

Through the window you can see how the approach pulls up. Ananias, still not knowing anything, gently leads Lizaveta who met him into the house by the arm and gives out gifts to all. At the table, “smart speeches” Ananias about the arrangement of cast iron and shipbuilding, about the superiority of the salesman over the craftsman, promises this year to bring Peter Lizaveta with them to alarm the audience. Lizaveta flares up, and drunk Uncle Nikon, an empty, backward little man who drove Anania out for a quarter, boasting of his former life in St. Petersburg, suddenly calls Anania a lordly brother-in-law. Hearing about the child, Ananias rushes to his wife, to Matryona, in dismay.

Lizaveta first explains her dishonor with fear alone, threats, coercion, and the desire to save her husband from recruitment. The anger and anguish of Ananias is all the more so because he himself did not live day or night without a thought about the house, placing above all else the debt of family and Christian debt. In the end, having mastered himself, he decides, in order to avoid shame, to forgive Lizaveta, and to adopt the boy of a month and a half, subject to the complete termination of love affairs with the master ...

Meanwhile, in a landowner’s house, in an office on the couch, Cheglov-Sokovin sat down, drowning, lean and exhausted, and his sister’s husband, flowering dandy Zolotilov, fell apart in armchairs. He instructs Cheglov on the true path with examples from the life of the county environment and his own experience of successful communication with a special lower class. Cheglov weakly resists Zolotilov’s cynicism, trying to prove that his reasoning is in the tone of Taras Skotinin, and “the peasant women know how to love.” When this woman was still pregnant, Cheglov suggested, in order to save her from shame, toss the baby to the burmistra. She refused: "I am sinful to them and must suffer for that." The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the bermistra Kalistrata Grigoryev with a report on the arrival of Ananias, his "ugliness", "tyranny" and Lizaveta, "torn" to the master. Through sobbing, she admits that Ananias now has one intention - to excommunicate and take her with her son to St. Petersburg, and this is “worse than death”, because earlier, she was forcibly given out and looked at the young gentleman when he came to the village, and now and “not a husband’s wife” at all. Cheglov, succumbing to the entreaties of the bermistra and Lizaveta, agrees to speak frankly on equal terms with Ananias, explaining that this is a matter of love, and offers him either a ransom or a duel. A three-way conversation with witnesses further offends Ananias. He recalls the burmistra as he deceived the gentleman with the land surveyor and sold thieves' bread. A skirmish ensues, during which the details of Ananias' family life conveyed by Lizaveta are clarified. Ananias furiously threatens her with reprisal. Frightened Cheglov orders the burmistra to make sure that "her hair does not fall from her head." The bourmister, having long harbored evil at Ananias, is plotting revenge.

As in the beginning, Matrena and Spiridonevna discuss what happened: Cheglov after meeting with Ananias came out like a dead man, his pelvis “completely blew his blood”, Lizaveta lay silently, locked up for 24 hours, hungry, only a shake with a child was transferred to her from the stove. At the sight of Anania Spiridonevna, as if by accident, she runs away to the burmist, who breaks in with the men “on a lord’s decree” to “guard his woman” just at the time of Ananias’s new explanation with Lizaveta, his persuasion to leave sin, begin to live divinely in St. Petersburg and buy a store with accumulated money. Ananias warns that if Lizaveta utters a word with the “robber”, he will not part with her alive.

Burmistr, quarreling, pits men with Ananias. At the very height of the squabble, Lizaveta appears from behind the partition, disheveled, in a thin sarafan, publicly declares herself to be the "mistress of the landlord" and demands that she be led to the master - at least, without shoes and clothes, "the last barn, or the dog." The burmistr of the young guy unsuccessfully tries to take away his short fur coat and boots by force - Lizaveta only reaches the estate, and finally dumps his Siberian coat to her. Lizaveta hastily carries her over the partition to wrap the baby. Ananias bursts in next, takes the child away and, in response to Lizaveta’s resistance and scolding, unconsciously kills the baby. A terrible scream is heard. Men are at a loss. Ananias runs to the broken window.

In the house of Cheglov, there was a lawyer, a police officer, they were gathering peasants, preparing for interrogation. The burmister, disposing of himself and making excuses, “why they didn’t stop and didn’t arrest”, blackens the missing Ananias and secretly conspires with the district government executives to hush up the case quickly. Sotsky leads Matryona. "Trembling with her whole body," she repeats the words of the burmistra: "I wasn’t ... I don’t know." An official of special missions appears, a young man with a prominent jaw, in a smartish uniform, with long beautiful nails, ambitious, but not smart, looks through papers, chases everyone, pushes Matryna, burmistra and orders to torture the killer’s wife. Lizaveta does not stand on her feet, falls and sobs: “... I am a sinner, a sinner” - “moved in my mind”. At the request of the official, Nikon is allowed out of the hallway and his drunken, incoherent testimony is recorded, which Zolotilov opposes, constantly interfering in the proceedings demanding to reckon with his “separate opinion” regarding the nobility. At this time, the man Davyd Ivanov announces the capture of Ananias, whom he met near the forest on his strip when he harrowed. He voluntarily surrendered to the authorities. Ananias is shackled. His expression is exhausted and completely suffering. To the question - “why did you give up? I would live there in the desert ... ”, to prove to officials that his wife had an illegitimate child, and thereby mitigate his punishment, - Ananiy replies:“ I didn’t go to life ... I looked for death ... but I looked for death ... you can run away and hide from the court of man, but there is no place from God! ”,“ it’s not for me to be their judge and docker: my sin is greater than all of them ... ”The official accuses the men, above all the burmistra, of conspiring, of striking. He is going to the governor to take the matter to clean water, with him Zolotilov to defend the honor of a nobleman. Burmistr released. Ananias collected in prison. He says goodbye to everyone. Burmistra kisses the first, bows. Approaches mother and wife. She rushes to his hands first. He kisses her on the head. She falls and hugs his legs. Matrena baptizes him. Ananias bows. Everyone escorts him. The women begin to howl.