A beautiful man, husband, father and worker Pavel Ivanovich Vasin got into the eye with a shard of the mirror of an evil wizard. And the world for him appeared in a gloomy light. He began to insult and offend everyone at home and at work. Anger and suspicion overwhelmed Vasin's heart. Enemies, schemers and thieves are seen everywhere. Everywhere he sees intrigues and intrigues. In complete despair from the ineradicability of evil, Vasin cries bitterly... along with tears, the unfortunate splinter disappears...
Moscow mid-XIX century. Middle-aged provincial businessman Savva Gennadievich Vasilkov falls in love with local beauty Lidiya Yuryevna Cheboksarova. Wanting to meet her, he asks his new acquaintance Telyatev to introduce himself as Cheboksarov. Telyatev and his friend Glumov decide to play the mother of Lidiya, Nadezhda Antonovna, who wants to get a rich son-in-law, and recommend Vasilkov as a gold mining millionaire from Siberia. Savva Gennadievich begins to visit the Cheboksarovs house, but his provincialism and Lydiya’s intention to create a brilliant party due to their beauty prevent them from finding a common language.
Under the guise of "student construction team of graduate students" a brigade of "covenants" arrives to the collective farm, expecting to get one thousand rubles for the construction of the "fountainarium" that is not envisaged by the estimate. However, under the gun of a local photo correspondent and the close attention of the collective farmers, Ruslan Ruslanych, a student of evening school, drunkard Tyulkin, illuminator in the theater Savchuk and hiding from alimony Panin, in order not to give himself away, are forced to work diligently and to be rehabilitated.
