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...