Aleksandr Chekayevsky

Based on the play of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. The Russian nobleman Fyodor Vasilievich Protasov cannot put up with the hypocrisy of his environment, but is powerless to fight it. He begins to drink, leaves the house and gradually falls. The behavior of Protasov helps to bring his wife Liza closer to a longtime friend of the family, Viktor Karenin. Unable to endure the lies and humiliation associated with the upcoming divorce proceedings, Fedya pretends to commit suicide and seemed to forever leave his family. It is only due to the accident that it becomes known that Fedor Protasov is alive. Liza, reconciled with the death of her husband and became the wife of Karenin, is summoned to court on charges of duality. To stop the stupid and deceitful comedy of the court and rid the shame of innocent people, Protasov shoots himself.

The eve of the 1905 Russian revolution was unquiet at the Skrobotova and Bardin factory. In response to the fair demand of the workers to dismiss the cruel and rude master, the masters close the factory and call in the troops. They shoot of one of the workers, who failed to restrain a rush of hatred towards the owners, ending Skrobotov's life. Gendarmes arrive at the factory. They succeed in uncovering the social democratic organization in the factory. The arrested workers oppose hysterical cruelty of gendarmes with calm, confident courage.

The film is based on eponymous play by Nikolay Gogol.