The novella tells the story of two girls from Saint Petersburg who spent their childhood in an orphanage. The work explores the themes of good and evil, love and hatred, passion and drama, as well as genuine emotions. It touches on questions of happiness and grief, relationships with kind and cruel people, envy, and betrayal. Based on real events, the book presents the characters not as idealized images, but as people with their own inner contradictions, feelings, hopes, pain, dreams, and romantic experiences. The tangled fates of the heroes prompt the reader to follow the story’s development closely. The characters’ names are changed, and they are not connected with real people; many events in the book are fictional.