The writer Osip Emelyanovich Voskoboynikov was late for a meeting with millionaire Farberg Konstantin Evseevich. A millionaire, rushing to catch a plane, accidentally mistakes the beggar-tramp Osip Emelyanovich Brahms for a real writer who has promised to write a novel in which Farberg should be the main character. Before this, Konstantin Evseevich communicated with the writer only by phone. The writer and the tramp turned out to be complete namesakes by name and patronymic. This circumstance predetermined further events.