The eldest son, who left for St. Petersburg, where he works as a detective, comes to the family of a crooked merchant and shopkeeper Grigory Tsybukin. Parents decide to marry him - his son is already 28 years old. They find a poor, but beautiful, clean and modest girl who meekly marries an already worn-out and balding man from the city, decently "laying by the collar". There is a merry wedding, and the husband leaves, leaving another worker in the family...