: Soviet monetary reform. To save the saleswoman from prison, her husband undertakes to get the money and goes for help to the villagers.

Kuzma decided to go to his brother for help even at night, although deep down he doubted that his brother would help - they had long since become strangers. Shaking in a cold bus, he recalls how it all began.

Five days ago, a “man of about forty” came to their village to conduct an audit in a store, the only saleswoman of which was Maria, the wife of Kuzma. There was no audit for a whole year. During this time, a shortage has accumulated - a thousand rubles. Mary was threatened with a prison. Pitying the four children, the auditor promised to hush up the case if they make a shortage while he will check other stores. For five days, Mary had to find money, which neither she nor her husband had ever held in their hands.

The next day, the whole village knew about Mary’s misfortune. The chairman promised to grant a loan, but not now, but at the end of the reporting year. This promise supported Kuzma a little, but Mary could not escape the shock. Having calmed his wife a little, Kuzma began to wonder: they didn’t have a cash supply, they also had nothing to sell, which means they would have to borrow. He immediately thought about his wealthy brother, and a few days later he took a train ticket. There was no reserved seat; I had to take a soft carriage.

Waiting for the train, Kuzma recalls how he walked around the village, humiliated himself and begged for money. First of all, he went to the most prosperous fellow villager, school director Evgeny Nikolaevich. The director has his own household, there’s nothing much to be spent on, so they and his wife add up salaries for the passbook. Upon learning that he was the first to come, Yevgeny Petrovich promised to lend, emphasizing several times that “we must help each other” and “people can happen to everyone” - they may not give it back.

A wind walks on the platform, and Kuzma "cannot get rid of the feeling that one is connected with the other, and the wind is blowing for good reason." On the train, he joins the passengers of the soft compartment. One of them, the director of the radio station Gennady Ivanovich, treats the “collective farmers” with contempt and even envy: rural residents have too many privileges and privileges in comparison with urban ones. Kuzma does not like this conversation, but he suffers until another fellow traveler, Colonel, transfers the conversation to preference. Four players are needed for this game, but Kuzma does not know how to play preference, and he is asked to swap places with a passenger from a compartment car. He agrees - Kuzma is all the same, if only to go.

This store "was like a damn," Kuzma recalls, so many people have suffered because of him. Lack was found in almost every seller. After the last saleswoman was put in, the store did not work for three months. Finally, Nadia Vorontsova, the third pregnant woman, agreed to take over the store after giving birth. Replace her at this time offered Mary. At that time, the Kuzma family lived tight. His last child was born weak, his wife was sick, "and the doctors did not tell her to do the hard work." Therefore, Maria went to the saleswomen, and so she remained to work. Things were going well with her, but the kind woman let the goods go on credit and didn’t go for the goods herself - she sent others. Because of this, and suffered. At first she believed that Kuzma would save her, but, after listening to the lamentations of her neighbors, she stopped believing.

In the compartment where Kuzma moved, an elderly couple and a heavily drunk guy are going. Old people who survived the war relate to each other with incredible tenderness. Kuzma falls asleep, and he dreams that he is collecting money for Mary. This is not the first time he has seen this dream. Having woken up, Kuzma can not fall asleep and again starts to recollect.

Evgeny Nikolaevich was generous with one hundred rubles. In the evening, Kuzma went to his best friend Vasily, but he did not offer money, although he knew about Kuzma’s misfortune. Then he remembered his brother. Three years ago, Maria went to the city for treatment, stopped to live with Alexei and decided that "it is better to live with strangers." A fellow villager of Kuzma went to the city, went to see his brother, but he did not even invite him to the table. Remembering this, Kuzma, however, believed that his brother would help him out. Maria believed that Alexey would not give money, and Kuzma also began to doubt.

Kuzma simply related to money: "is - good, no - and it is not necessary." His family did not starve, but there was always not enough money, they were "patches that are put in the holes." Kuzma did not understand how money can be collected. And suddenly "money chose him."

When it got dark, Vasily came. Together, friends went to Stepanida, a stingy woman who sells moonshine. Everyone knew that her little egg was full, and Kuzma and Vasily decided to give her a drink to become kinder. Their plan failed - drunk, Stepanida did not cease to be stingy.

The fellow traveler of Kuzma, who recently divorced his wife, is cynical about women, he is sure that the old man has betrayed his wife at least once. He asks if Kuzma was cheating on his wife. He admits - it was once when he met his first. Maria found out, wanted to leave, but Kuzma persuaded to return and has not changed since then. Kuzma believes the old men, they also have such monogamous people in the village. And the train is getting closer and closer to the city.

On the morning of the second day, the bumpy grandfather Gordey brought fifteen rubles, which he asked for from his son. Then Vasily led Kuzma to his seriously ill mother. She gave the money collected "to death", but she asked to return it quickly - death, she does not wait. Maria no longer cried, she walked around the house, as if inanimate. Even the kids, looking at their mother, became quiet. Sitting at home was unbearable, and Kuzma wandered into the office to the chairman. He remembered the year 1947, when the chairman was seated - in the very strada. There was no gas then, and bread was crumbling; he bought stolen fuel from a barge. They released it in 1954, after an amnesty. The people sought to be appointed chairman again, but this happened only five years ago.

Having ordered to wait, the chairman gathered collective farm specialists and invited them to abandon the monthly salary in favor of Kuzma. They agreed - no one wanted to be known as mean. "And the second day came to an end."

A guy wakes Kuzmu on a train in the middle of the night. Calling him to smoke, the guy complains about life and envies the old man - if only all the women were like his grandmother. The wife left the guy, taking her daughter with her, and now the guy is thinking whether she will return to him or not. When Kuzma says that a woman can find another, the guy is angry.

The third day has arrived. Kuzma received money in the office, after which specialists and their wives began to approach him, complaining that there was nothing to live on. Kuzma implicitly gave them the money. In the evening, grandfather Gordey took a seat and said that Kuzma did not need any money, he only needed to make Maria pregnant - then they would not put her in prison. By this time, only half of the required amount had been collected, and Kuzma began to think that his grandfather was right. So the third day ended, and in the morning Kuzma went to his brother.

Kuzma gets off the train and sees that the wind has abated. Big, shaggy flakes of snow falling. It seems to Kuzma that this is good. He gets off the bus, finds his brother's house and knocks. “So he came - pray, Mary! They will open it for him now. ”