In the 18th century, a ballet troupe at the Bolshoi Kameny Theatre in St. Petersburg lived much the way it does today: intrigues, quarrels over roles, romantic meetings of young dancers. But death intervened in the love triangle. The lovely dancer Glafira, who had been hopelessly in love with Sanya’s figure, was found dead backstage, among the scenery, and next to her lay a mask in which Sanya had depicted an “infernal ghost” the day before. A young performer who is in love with him comes to the help of the dancer—she is nicknamed Fedka. She sees only one way to save her beloved: to pay perjurers so that trouble is diverted from him. But for that you need money. And meanwhile Sanya unexpectedly falls in love with one of the richest beauties in the capital…