The plot centers on ambitious intrigues: the singer Ladygin is embarrassed by the profession of his suddenly arrived friend Svekolkin and introduces him to his family members as a major scientist; Ladygin's nephew Alexei has a fiancee Kira, but her mother sets her against her fiancé in order to marry her off to the singer himself, destroying his marriage to Vera; Svekolkin convinces his daughter, who is also in love with her nephew, to abandon him...
