After receiving a slap in the face, Officer Silvio challenges the offending Count to a duel. However, urgent circumstances force the officer to leave, leaving the right to shoot. After many years, on the eve of the Count’s wedding, Silvio returns to demand retaliation.
Aneta, the serf actress of Knyaz Skalinsky, amazes with her beauty and talented performance of Shchepin. After the performance, a frank conversation ensues between them. The interlocutor learns that Skalinsky, pursuing the actress for a long time, gave her lover — a young actor of the troupe — to the soldiers for twenty-five years. After much deliberation, Shchepin decides to help the girl, but is too late...
