Summary of Pushkin's short story on fr.wikipedia.org
Maria and Vladimir decide to get married despite the opposition of the girl's parents. On the fateful day, the lovers go separately to church. On the way, Vladimir is caught in a snowstorm, gets lost and, when he finally arrives at the church, it is closed. Maria has meanwhile returned home, where she soon falls very ill. The parents, believing that love is the cause of her illness, decide to consent to her marriage to Vladimir. He, however, refuses and goes to war, where he is killed.
After the war, a hussar colonel, Bourmine, comes on leave to his lands, near Maria's village. The two young people fall in love. While everyone believes in marriage, Bourmine reveals to Maria that their union is impossible. He has been married for four years, even if he does not know to whom. Maria asks him to explain his strange story: one evening, caught in a snowstorm, Bourmine took refuge in a church; before he had time to say anything, he was dragged towards a priest before whom a young girl was already kneeling; that is how, through frivolity, he married a young lady who also, in her confusion, did not realize anything, until the kiss; then, he ran away. Obviously, the young girl was none other than Maria, waiting for Vladimir in the church lost in the middle of the snowstorm...
