They are passionately in love with Ustinya—exiled nobleman Mikhail Iverznev and the respected peasant Antip Silin… But she loves her good-for-nothing Efim with deathly devotion; she married him on the road to Siberia. He can’t find peace: he either commits adultery with the wandering Zhanetka, burning with jealousy toward his wife, or runs away. And Ustinya has to beg the stern authorities not to declare him wanted.