The action of the story takes place in pagan Egypt, a land as holy as Syria, and which also hid its Orthodox secrets in the faint flickering of the crescent moon.

The plot begins with the love affairs of a noble person of pagan Egypt, a certain Nephori, or Nephoris, who decided to marry the talented goldsmith Zeno, develops into the cruel intrigue of the Egyptian Pharisee, who forces the Egyptian ruler to force Christians to literally fulfill that passage of Scripture, where if “such a person says to the mountain “move,” then as if the mountain will move from the meta and throw yourself into the water." Zeno, avoiding temptation, gouges out his tempting eye. He saves all the Christians of Egypt, while their bishop flees. He, at the moment of the greatest dramatic tension, enlightens Nefora, opens her eyes to the Christian vision of the union of a man and a woman, and she, subsequently, becomes a real Christian, a righteous woman and the wife of Zeno.

However, in addition to the intense and dramatic plot , profound subtext, “Mountain” is distinguished by its incredible imagery. From its pages the living breath of the East seems to emanate, and it is felt in everything.

This story is imbued with the aroma of the East, like no other by Leskov and, despite the fact that in the times described, Egypt not only was not conquered by the Arabs , but the very teaching of the Prophet was not created, as if the magical spirit of the tales of the Arabian Nights had moved into this work, sparkling not only with the precious gold of the tents, but also with the white cape of the wanderer, and the emaciated body of the beggar and even a shiny crocodile.