A young man named Lyokha hurries to catch the train in time to pay off his debt to a bandit nicknamed Sipaty. On the way to the station, he meets a strange woman who asks to be taken across the road. The old woman tells Lyokha that she has already died, but her sins do not let her go from this world. She tells Lyokha that, having taken her across the road near the City Gate, he performed a special ritual and took her sins upon himself. Now Lyokha has to “work off” her grandmother’s sin.