Due to the carelessness of her brother, who squandered the fortune inherited from his father, Emily herself has to earn her own piece of bread. Going to the boarding house of St. Margaret, the girl had no idea that in this seemingly decent institution real passions reigned - love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal, greed and selflessness. The young teacher will have to reveal many secrets, as well as find her own unexpected happiness. Literary treatment of the text by N. Kosareva.