The master's young wife forced the serf blacksmith Arkhip Sankov to become her lover. The noble-hearted and pure-hearted young man was disgusted by such a connection, and he, having mustered up determination, told his owner about it. To Arkhip’s surprise, he calmly listened to the story and unexpectedly, instead of cruel punishment, gave the serf a “letter of freedom.” At parting, the master told Arkhip who his father was and where to look for him. For five years the blacksmith walked around the world in search of his father, but... Everywhere only disappointment awaited him. And then one day, by the will of fate, he ended up in the provincial steppe town of Orenburg. Arkhip could not have imagined then that he would find himself in a seething cauldron of incredible events and, what is most surprising, would become almost the main link in the chain of raging passions.