1870. Tiflis, the Armenian quarter. The merchant Darcho proposed to the modest, hard-working and beautiful Kekel, the sister of the fisherman Pepo. It was also of no small importance to him that the girl’s dowry amounted to 1,000 roubles, which had been entrusted several years earlier by her father—now deceased—to the wealthy merchant Zimzimov for safekeeping. As luck would have it, the receipt had been lost, and when Zimzimov learnt of this, he swore he knew nothing about the money...
