Timosh, a young village boy, finds himself in the ministry of Father Mikhail, a priest who hides in a convent with him after a scandal with the Count. There Timosh encounters the mundane mores of the monastery, where the abbess and sisters are steeped in greed, duplicity and intrigue, despite their lofty sermons on morality. Seeing this contradiction, Timosh decides to return to ordinary life outside the convent.