Yermoliev

The story of Prince Stepán Kasátsky discovering his fiancée was the mistress of the Czar, so he then becomes a monk.

While hosting a game of cards one night, Narumov tells his friends a story about his grandmother, a Countess. As a young woman, she had once incurred an enormous gambling debt, which she was able to erase by learning a secret that guaranteed that she could win by playing her cards in a certain order. One of Narumov's friends, German, has never gambled, but he is intrigued by the story about the Countess and her secret. He soon becomes obsessed with learning this secret from her, and he starts by courting her young ward Lizaveta, hoping to use her to gain access to the Countess.

Pastor Talnoх furiously urges the flock to fight temptations, but he himself becomes a victim of temptation. In his house appears Satan, pushing the hero to theft and spiritual fall.

Prosecutor Olsen's lover, the singer-songwriter Betsy, leaves him for a new passion. And he, speaking in court as a prosecutor, remains deaf to the dictates of feelings, a ruthless servant of the harsh Law. Some time later, Betsy kills her new lover in a fit of jealousy; Olsen, who retained his feelings, nevertheless becomes her accuser at the trial. He seeks the condemnation of Betsy, but comes to the realization that he lived unrighteously, allowing himself to be judged, becoming a servant of Themis. Exit in the classic tradition of the great mute: Olsen commits suicide.

A perverted town mayor who murders a young girl and, overcome by guilt, commits suicide. Based on the short story La petite Roque by Guy de Maupassant.

A romance in the upper-classes develops as the Bolshevik revolution is at hand.