In the house of Daria Mikhailovna Lasunskaya, a noble and wealthy landowner, former beauty and lioness of the capital, who even far from civilization still organizes her salon, a certain Baron, erudite and expert in philosophy, who promised to introduce his scientific research, is waiting. Instead of the expected celebrity arrives Dmitri Nikolaevich Rudin, whom the Baron instructed to deliver his article. Rudin charms everyone with his erudition, originality and logical thinking. Lasunskaya is determined to make the ornament of his salon. During the two months that Rudin spends at Lasunskaya's, he becomes indispensable to her. But Rudin's misfortune is that while he inflames others, he himself remains as cold as ice, never thinking that his words "may confuse and destroy a young heart".