The heroine loves her father's young steward. The appearance of her father, attempting to match her with a rich old man, makes her hide her lover under the featherbed, where he suffocates; An unwitting, almost anecdotal murder-- understandable familial insubordination turned deadly. Having found the corpse, mother and daughter in fear call the janitor, who hides the body in a barrel and throws it into the Volga river. The 'kindly' janitor, however, begins to blackmail the troubled women.