The action takes place in one of the counties of central Russia. Nikolai Alekseevich Ivanov, a landowner, sits in his garden and reads a book. Misha Borkin, his distant relative and manager of his estate, tipsy returns from the hunt. Seeing Ivanov, takes aim at him from a gun, laughs at his joke, continues to pester him, demands to give money for payment to workers. Ivanov has no money, he asks to leave him alone.
His wife, Anna Petrovna, who appeared in the window of the house, was playfully disposed: "Nikolai, let's somersault in the hay!" Ivanov annoyedly answers that it is harmful for her to stand in the draft, and advises closing the window. Borkin recalls that there is still a payment of interest on Lebedev's debt. Ivanov is going to go to Lebedev to ask for a respite. Borkin recalls that today is the birthday of Lebedev's daughter Sasha. He gives Ivanov a lot of advice on how to get a lot of money, one more adventurous than the other.
Uncle Ivanova, the old Count Shabelsky and Lvov, a young doctor, are shown. Shabelsky, as usual, grumbles. Lvov is serious: Anna Petrovna has consumption, she needs peace, and she is constantly worried about her husband’s changed attitude towards her. Lvov reproaches Ivanov for the fact that his behavior kills the patient. Ivanov confesses to the doctor that he himself is not able to understand himself, the change that has happened to him. He married out of passionate love, and his future wife, a Jewess, nee Sarah Abramson, changed her faith, name for her sake, left her father and mother, and left wealth. And now five years have passed, she still loves him, and he himself does not feel either love or pity for her, but some kind of emptiness, fatigue. And he repeats again that he does not understand what is being done to his soul. He is thirty-five years old, and he advises the young doctor not to choose extraordinary ways in life, but to build his whole life according to a pattern.
Lvov’s confession seems hypocritical; left alone, he calls him Tartuffe, a con man: oh, he knows why Ivanov goes to Lebedev every night. Shabelsky and Anna Petrovna beg Ivanov leaving not to leave them, to take with them. Count irritated Ivanov agrees to take. His wife admits that he is painfully tormented at home, longing - why, he himself does not know, and asks not to keep him. In vain she tries to caress, reminds him of how well they lived before. Ivanov and his uncle leave, the sad Anna Petrovna remains. But when the doctor tries to convict her husband, she ardently intervenes for him. After all, the doctor did not know Ivanov the former: he was a wonderful, strong man who could captivate and lead away.
Unable to stand loneliness, she, too, is going to go where Ivanov is now.
The hall in the house of Lebedevs, guests gathered on the birthday of Sasha. The owner of the house, Zinaida Savvishna (Zyuzyushka), from being stingy with refreshments, offers only “lace jam,” old Lebedev often calls a footman with a glass of vodka. They play cards, conduct empty conversations, gossip about Ivanov: he supposedly married his Jewess out of self-interest, but he didn’t get a penny, which is why he is now unhappy and has become "mad." Sasha alone ardently objects to slander: the only fault of Ivanov, she says, is that he has a weak character and that he believes people too much.
Ivanov appears with Shabelsky, then a noisy Borkin with fireworks and sparklers. When everyone leaves for the garden, Ivanov, continuing the conversation with Sasha, confesses to her: “My conscience hurts day and night, I feel deeply guilty, but I don’t understand what, in fact, my fault. And then there’s the wife’s illness, lack of money, eternal bickering, gossip <...> I am dying of shame at the thought that I, a healthy, strong person, turned not to Hamlet, not to Manfred, not to extra people <...> This outrages my pride, shame oppresses me, and I suffer ... "Sasha is sure that she understands Ivanov. He is lonely, he needs a man whom he loves and who understands him. Love alone can renew it. Ivanov grins sadly: he only needs to start a new romance. "No, my clever girl, it's not in the novel." They leave for the garden, a little later Anna Petrovna and Lvov appear. The doctor talked all the way about his honesty. She is bored, she again contrasts him with Ivanov - such as he was recently: cheerful, condescending to those around him.
When Ivanov and Sasha returned a little later, he was confused by her declaration of love for him: “My God, I don’t understand anything ... Shurochka, don’t!” But Sasha enthusiastically continues to talk about his love, and Ivanov rolls up with a happy laugh: “Does this mean to start life all over again? .. Back to business?” Their kiss is seen by the incoming Anna Petrovna. Ivanov in horror exclaims: “Sarah!”
In the house of Ivanov, Lebedev, Lvov, Borkin - everyone needs to talk to him about his own, Ivanov wants to be left alone. Lebedev offers him secretly from Zyuzyushka money, Ivanov, however, takes a completely different: "What is the matter with me? .. I myself do not understand." And then, alone with himself, he recalls: “There is still no year, how healthy and strong, I was vigorous, tireless, hot ... And now ... tired, I don’t believe ... I’m not expecting anything, I’m not sorry. .. ”He does not understand why and why Sarah fell out of love, Sasha’s love seems to him an abyss. And again: “I don’t understand, I don’t understand, I don’t understand!”
Lvov, summoning Ivanov for an explanation, says that he understands his actions and that he is ready to call things by their real name: Ivanov needs the death of his wife in order to receive a dowry for Sasha Lebedeva. In vain Ivanov urges him not to be so self-confident: “No, doctor, there are too many wheels, cogs and valves in each of us so that we can judge each other by first impression or by two or three external signs ...” Seeing Sasha coming in , the doctor tells Ivanov: “Now, I hope we understand each other perfectly!”
Ivanov’s arrival does not please Sasha, in their novel he sees “a common, battered place: he lost heart and lost ground. She appeared, cheerful, strong, and gave him a helping hand ... ". But Sasha really thinks to save Ivanov. “Men don’t understand much. Every girl would rather like a loser than a lucky one, because everyone is seduced by an active love ... ”Let Ivanov be with his sick wife for a year, ten - she, Sasha, will not get tired of waiting.
After her departure, Anna Petrovna enters, offended, she demands an explanation from her husband. Ivanov is ready to plead deeply guilty before her, but when he hears from his wife the same interpretation of his actions: “All this time you have been deceiving me in the most arrogant way <...> A dishonorable, low person! You owe Lebedev, and now, in order to evade debt, you want to turn his daughter’s head, deceive her just like me, ”he can’t stand it. He gasps, asks her to shut up, and finally a terrible, insulting breaks out: “Shut up, Jew! <...> So know that you will die soon <...> The doctor told me that you will die soon ... "And seeing how his words acted upon her, sobbing, grabbing his head:" How guilty I am! God, how guilty I am! ”
About a year has passed. During this time, Sarah died, the old man Shabelsky Borkin fought for a young rich widow. In the house of Lebedev preparations for the wedding of Ivanov and Sasha.
Doctor Lviv walks excitedly. He is stifled by hatred of Ivanov, he wants to tear off that mask and bring it to clean water. Lebedev and Sasha are not very cheerful: both father and daughter admit to each other that in the upcoming wedding “something is not right, not right!” But Sasha is ready to go to the end: “He is a good, miserable, misunderstood person; I will love him, I understand, put on his feet. I will fulfill my task. ”
Unexpectedly for everyone, Ivanov appears. “It’s not too late, you need to stop this senseless comedy ...” he says to Sasha. It was on this morning that he realized that he had finally died, that his boredom, despondency, and discontent were incompatible with living life, and his conscience did not allow him to destroy Sasha’s youth. He asks her to help him and right now, immediately refuse him. But Sasha rejects his generosity, although he sees that instead of active love, martyrdom is obtained. Kind Lebedev understands everything in his own way: he offers Ivanov and Sasha the cherished ten thousand. But the bride and groom are stubborn: everyone says that he will do what is ordered by his own conscience.
For the last time, Ivanov explains to Lebedev who understands nothing: “I was young, warm, sincere, not stupid; He loved, hated and believed not like everyone else, worked and hoped for ten, fought with mills, banged his head against the walls ... And so cruelly avenges the life with which I fought! I overcame! At the age of thirty, a hangover <...> already tired, torn, broken, without faith, without love, without purpose, like a shadow, I wander among people and I don’t know: who I am, why I live, what I want? .. Oh, how indignant I’m proud of how rabies strangles me! ”
Dr. Lvov manages to shout out his insult: “I declare publicly that you are a scoundrel!” - but Ivanov hears it coldly and calmly. He pronounced his sentence on his own. “Youth woke up in me, the former Ivanov spoke!” Having taken out the revolver, he runs back to the side and shoots himself.