The main character of the novel is Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate son of a nobleman. Throughout his childhood, other people were in charge of his upbringing; his peers often mocked him, and he grew sensitive and vulnerable. At the age of twenty, Arkady moves to St. Petersburg and goes to serve as a secretary to an old prince. Here an idea is born in him—to become as rich as the millionaire Rothschild. He hopes to achieve this goal with the help of his original theory of “perseverance and continuity.” Can a person change their life, or rather, will life change the person instead?