A chronicler of Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, satirist Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, as always, accurately captures the images of his fellow countrymen of the most diverse classes and temperaments—those he has seen in everyday life. In this, at once somewhat funny and somewhat sad, novel, a wide variety of character types are playfully and wittily portrayed. The lonely elderly merchant Trifon Ivanovich Zakolov becomes sincerely moved by warm feelings for his cook, Akulina. A modest, quiet woman truly transforms under the influence of her new status in the house, and the dynamics between the “satyr” and the “nymph” shift radically. A maid friend gives Akulina useful—at least, in her view—advice, while a relative from the village applies for a breadwinning position, and it is not immediately clear what the chain of events set in motion by a simple sympathy will lead to.