: The young master finds himself in a remote village where he falls in love with a girl who is considered a witch. He wants to take her with him, but the locals expel the girl, and the hero parted with her forever.

The young male narrator, whom “fate abandoned for six months in the remote village Perebrod of the Volyn province, to the outskirts of Polesie,” is unbearably bored. His only amusements are hunting with the servant Yarmola and attempts to teach the latter to read and write. One day, during a terrible snowstorm, the hero learns from the usually unreasonable Yarmola that about ten versts from his house is the real witch Manuilikha, who came from somewhere in the village, and then was evicted outside of her witchcraft deeds.

The opportunity to get to know her appears quickly: as soon as it gets warmer, the hero goes on a hunt and, lost in the forest, stumbles upon a hut. Assuming that a local forester lives here, he goes inside and discovers an old woman "with all the features of a woman-yaga, as the folk epic depicts her." Manuilikh meets the hero unfriendly, but noticeably animates when he takes out a silver quarter and asks the old woman to tell fortunes. In the midst of fortune-telling, the witch’s granddaughter, Olesya, the dark-haired beauty “twenty to twenty-five years old” enters the house.She is friendly to the narrator and shows him the way home.

All the first spring days, the image of Olesya does not leave the narrator’s thoughts.

I myself did not suspect how thin, strong, invisible threads my heart was tied to this charming girl, incomprehensible to me.

When the forest roads dry up, the narrator sets off for the witch's hut. As for the first time, the granddaughter meets the guest much more affable than Manuilikh. And when the guest asks Olesya to tell him a fortune, she admits that she has already thrown cards at him and guessed that this year he will receive “great love from the side of the club of women with dark hair”. And to those, "who will love you, you will bring a lot of grief." More cards told Oles that this hero will bring shame to this lady, which is worse than death ...

Accompanying the narrator, Olesya will try to prove to him that she and her grandmother have a real gift of witchcraft, and conducts several experiments on him - Heals him a deep cut and makes him stumble after her. Then the hero tries to find out where Manuilikha came to Polesie from, to which Olesya evasively evokes that her grandmother does not like to talk about it. Then the narrator first introduced himself - his name is Ivan Timofeevich.

From this day the hero becomes a frequent guest in the hut. Olesya is always glad to see him, although she meets with restraint. But the old woman is not particularly happy, but Ivan manages to appease her with gifts, and the intercession of Olesya also helps.

Ivan is fascinated not only by the beauty of Olesya. He is attracted to her distinctive mind.A lot of controversy erupts between them when Ivan tries to scientifically substantiate Olesino's “black art”. Despite the differences, a deep affection arises between them. Meanwhile, Ivan spoils relations with Yarmola, who does not approve of his acquaintance with the sorceress. The servant does not like the fact that both witches are afraid of the church.

Once, when Ivan once again comes to the hut, he finds the sorceress and her granddaughter upset: a local officer ordered them to leave the hut at twenty-four hours and threatened to let them go in stages in case of disobedience. The hero volunteers to help, and the old woman does not refuse the offer, despite Olesino's discontent. Ivan begs the officer not to drive the women out of the house, which he objects to and calls the old woman and her granddaughter "an ulcer of these places." Coaxing the officer with treats and expensive gifts, Ivan nevertheless achieves his goal. The officer promises to leave Manuilikh and Olesya alone.

From this time, Olesya begins to avoid Ivan and any explanations with him.

Separation for love is the same as the wind for fire: it extinguishes a small love, and inflates a large one even more.

Then Ivan suddenly and seriously falls ill - for six days he was "beaten by a terrible woodland fever." And only after recovery he manages to communicate with Olesya. The girl avoided meeting with Ivan only because she wanted to escape from fate. Realizing that this is impossible, she confesses his love to him. Ivan reciprocates her, but Olesya can’t forget everything about his fortune-telling. However, despite Ivan’s illusions and Manuiliha’s spite, their love flourishes.

Meanwhile, Ivan's official duties in Perebrod are over, and more and more often he comes to the idea of ​​marrying Oles and taking her with him. Having convinced himself of the correctness of this decision, he makes an offer to his beloved. But Olesya refuses - she does not want to spoil the life of a young, educated master. The girl even offers Ivan just to go after him, without any marriage.

Ivan suspects that her refusal is connected with the fear of the church, to which Olesya says that for the sake of love for him, she is ready to overcome this superstition. She arranges for him to meet at the church the next day, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, and Ivan has a terrible presentiment.

The vague attraction of the heart is never mistaken in its quick, secret presentiments.

The next day, Ivan is delayed on official business and does not have time to get to church on time. Returning home, he finds himself at the local clerk who tells him about today's "fun" - the village girls caught a witch who had been given a shake in the square, wanted to smear it with tar, but she managed to escape. Indeed, Olesya came to church, defended mass, after which village women attacked her. Having miraculously escaped, Olesya threatened them that they would still remember her and would cry to the full.

Ivan learns all these details later. In the meantime, he rushes into the forest, and finds in a hut a battered Olesya without memory, seized with a fever, and cursing him Manuilikh. Olesya comes to his senses and explains to Ivan that he and his grandmother can no longer stay here, so she and Ivan will have to leave.In parting, Olesya admits that she would like to have a child from Ivan and regrets that he is not.

That very night a strong hail rained down on Perebrod. In the morning, Yarmol wakes up Ivan and advises him to get out of the village - the hail that beat the inhabitants of half of the village, according to the village, was sent by sorcerers from revenge, and the embittered people are already beginning to “shout unkind” about Ivan. Wishing to warn Olesya of her trouble, the hero rushes into the hut, where he finds only traces of a hasty flight and bright red beads, which remained the only memory of Oles and her gentle, generous love ...