The action takes place in a backwater small town. The story of the life of a married couple - Colonel Yagich and his wife Sophia Lvovna, a young woman, and their friend - a military doctor, who is called, like Sonechka's husband, Vladimir. Partly to spite Volodya the little man who once did not reciprocate her feeling, Sonechka married Yagich, who is thirty years older than she is. Soon the longing came - she did not love her husband. Soniechka rushes back to Volodya the little, and they begin a stormy romance...