Vassa Borisovna Zheleznova, girlhood - Khrapova, 42 years old (but looks younger), the owner of the shipping company, a very wealthy and influential person, lives in her own house with her sleeping husband, Sergei Petrovich Zheleznov, 60 years old, former captain, and brother, Prokhor Borisovich Khrapov, a careless, drinking person, collecting all kinds of castles (the collection, as it were, mimics the proprietary instincts of the sister). Natalya and Lyudmila, the daughters of Vassa and Sergei Petrovich, also live in the house; Anna Onoshenkova - a young secretary and confidante of Vassa and at the same time a house spy; Lisa and then Fields are maids. The sailor Pyaterkin is constantly in the house, playing the role of a jester and secretly hitting Lisa in the hope of marrying her and getting rich; Guriy Krotkikh - shipping company manager; Melnikov is a member of the district court and his son Evgeny (tenants).

Rachel arrives from abroad - the wife of the son of Vassa Fedor dying far from his homeland. Rachelle is a revolutionary socialist wanted by the police. She wants to pick up her young son Kolya, whom Vassa hides in the village and does not want to give her daughter-in-law, as she expects to make him the heir to the estate and the successor of her business. Vassa threatens to give Rachel to the gendarmes if she insists on the return of her son.

The shaky well-being of Vassa’s house rests on crime. She poisons her husband Sergei Petrovich when he is implicated in the seduction of a minor and threatens him with hard labor. But first, she invites him to commit suicide, and only when he refuses, Vassa, saving the honor of unmarried daughters, sprinkles powder on her husband. Thus, the family avoids the shame of the court. On this series of crimes did not end. The maid Lisa suffered from Vassa’s brother and, in the end, hanged herself in the bathhouse (people were told that she had died) Vassa was ready to do anything to save the house and her business. She is madly in love with her failed children, who were the victim of their father's former unbridled life and his ill-treatment of their mother. Fedor is not a tenant in this world. Lyudmila, in childhood, having seen enough of her father’s pastime with slutty girls, grew up weak-witted. Natalya gradually gets drunk with her uncle and does not like her mother, whom she nevertheless looks very cool in her temper. The last hope is the grandson, but he is still too small.

There is some similarity between Rachelle and Vassa, which they both feel. These are whole, fanatical characters - “masters of life”;

Only Vassa - all in the past, and behind Rachelle - the future. They are implacable enemies, but respect each other. Nevertheless, Vassa orders the secretary to report the gendarmes to Rachelle, but he does this solely for the sake of his grandson, the ending of the play is unexpected. Vassa is suddenly dying. There is a sense of punishment from above for the absurd, sudden death of her husband and mockery of fate: part of Vassa’s money is stolen by Onoshenkov, and the rest of the wealth will be disposed of by the law of a dissolute brother, who will undoubtedly squander everything. Only the moron Lyudmila mourns her mother. The rest of her death does not touch.