May 5, 1838 a young woman throws a newborn girl into the house of Prince Dmitry Shadursky. The thirty-eight-year-old prince is little surprised by the appearance of a foundling; knowing the prince’s lifestyle, he does not see anything strange in this, and his wife Tatyana Lvovna. Shadursky decides to get rid of the girl and goes for advice to Generalsch von Spilze - the famous St. Petersburg lady of dubious origin, who knows everyone and everything and knows how to arrange any business in the most different ways.
The mother of the newborn girl, twenty-five-year-old Princess Anna Chechevinskaya, is impatiently waiting in the secret shelter for the return of her maid Natasha, whom she instructed to take his illegitimate child to the prince. Princess Anna was brought up in the village with her drinking father. There she met with a neighbor who arrived for three months, Prince Shadursky, who for nothing had seduced a beautiful girl. Anna's father died unexpectedly, and, being pregnant, she was forced to move to Petersburg, to her mother, who did not love her. Fearing the anger of the old princess, Anna went to the secret midwife, accompanied by a servant maid, leaving her mother a note informing about the upcoming birth.
Outraged by the immorality of her daughter, the old princess deprives her of her inheritance in favor of her beloved son Nikolai, a rake and a gambler. The shame of Princess Chechevinsky is made public in the Petersburg world; the old princess falls ill from a nervous shock.
Meanwhile, Natasha hatches her own plans for further action. This eighteen-year-old serf girl grew up in the house of the brother of the old Princess Chechevinsky, who spoiled a pretty girl and raised her like a young lady. After an unexpected death, gentleman Natasha was inherited by his sister and instantly lost the benefits that had become familiar. She was separated from her mother and put up as a maid by Princess Anne. Natasha, a cold-blooded nature, ruthless and consistent, harbored a desire to take revenge on the hated princess.
After the scandal in the Chechevinsky family, Natasha goes to Voznesensky Prospekt to her lover, the engraver Kazimir Bodlevsky, who at the time of her arrival was busy making fake money. Natasha demands that he get a fake passport for her and dictates a note to him, which should be written in the handwriting of Princess Anna Chechevinsky. With the help of a con man Sergey Kovrov, Bodlevsky obtains a passport in one of the Petersburg dens under the name "Ruffs". Having given the sick princess of Chechevinskaya opium, Natasha steals most of the money from her casket, leaving instead a note supposedly from Princess Anne, which says that she takes the money she has put. Unable to withstand this shock, the old princess dies, however, having managed to destroy the compromising family of the Chechevinsky note. Nikolai Chechevinsky was extremely surprised to find after the death of his mother not such a large amount, on which he was counting. Natasha and Bodlevsky flee to Finland with fake passports.
Prince Dmitry Platonovich Shadursky agrees with General von Spilze about the arrangement of the child and immediately forgets about the existence of his illegitimate daughter - as, however, does not want to remember the fate of her mother. Shadursky is more interested in who his twenty-five-year-old wife is pregnant with, with whom he, after the birth of his son Vladimir, maintains only the appearance of family relations. Six years ago, Shadursky married Tatyana Lvovna to annoy a friend in love with her; his wife soon bored him. Offended by the indifference and infidelity of her husband, the princess found solace in the society of a man of "low" origin. Unaware of this, the prince suspects that the father of the unborn child of Tatyana Lvovna is a socialite similar to him. Imagine his shock when he finds the princess in the arms of his manager Mordenko! The infuriated prince slaps him in the face and drives him out of the house; In response to the reproaches of the princess, Shadursky gives her a slap in the face. At night, Tatyana Lvovna begins preterm birth and the frightened Shadursky takes her to the same secret shelter, where Anna Chechevinskaya, who is abandoned, is located by everyone. While the princess gives birth, an explanation of Anna and Prince Shadursky occurs; afraid of becoming a hero of a secular scandal, he refuses the princess. Anna unsuccessfully requests to return her child.
Princess Shadurskaya’s newborn son is left with a midwife. Soon, the princess secretly sends Mordenko money in order to put the child in good hands - and also forgets about the existence of her son. Shadurskaya haughtyly expels Anna Che-Chevinskaya who came to her child for her child, accusing her of immorality. Without a child, without friends, without a livelihood, Anna disappears in the slums of St. Petersburg. The Shadurskys, together with their five-year-old son Vladimir, are leaving abroad.
The daughter of Shadursky and Chechevinsky was named Masha and was given by General von Spilze to bring up the kind and God-fearing old people Povetin, who live on the Petersburg side. The son of Mordenko and Shadurskaya was baptized by Ivan Veresov and placed in the family of a retired major Spitsa, who makes a living by giving foster children to beggars for better collection of alms.
Twenty years later, the princes of Shadur returned to Petersburg. In the same carriage with them, Baroness von Dering and her brother, Austrian citizen Jan Karozich, are traveling from the Russian border. Both Shadursky, old and young, look after the beautiful baroness on the road. Courts continue in St. Petersburg, which annoys Princess Tatyana Lvovna, as she expects a profitable marriage of her son with the daughter of a wealthy gold miner Shinsheeva.
Visiting the Shinsheevs, Vladimir Shadursky meets Yulia Nikolaevna Beroeva, the wife of the Shinsheevsky employee. The beauty of the young woman awakens the self-loving Shadursky desire to achieve her favor. His pride is also irritated by the fact that, as a loving wife and mother of two children, Beroeva rejects all the boyfriends, including Mr. Shinsheev himself. Not accustomed to denying himself anything, Vladimir makes a bet on his friends with Beroeva. At his request, taking advantage of the prolonged absence of Beroeva’s husband, General von Spilze lures her to her, gives him a special drink that makes Julia surrender to Vladimir Shadursky.
Under the names of Baroness von Dering and Jan Karozic, Natasha and Bodlevsky returned to Petersburg. For twenty years of their stay abroad, they became clever international swindlers and were forced to flee from the French court. In St. Petersburg, they form an “association” of fraudsters with an old acquaintance, Sergei Kovrov, and a new one - calling himself the Hungarian count Nikolai Kallash. With the help of clever adventures, they lure money from a representative of the Jesuit Order, from gullible secular persons. Karozich becomes the last lover of the aging Tatyana Lvovna Shadurskaya, who willingly supplies him with money.
Soon after the incident with Generals von Shpilce, Julia Beroeva feels pregnant. In desperation, she thinks what a hard blow will be her involuntary betrayal for her husband. Hiding her pregnancy, Julia gives birth to a secret midwife, proposing to leave her baby. But she becomes sorry for the newborn boy, and she decides to ask Prince Vladimir Shadursky to take care of him. Beroeva writes him a note inviting him to a masquerade, and then, during lunch at a restaurant, asks to take part in the fate of the child. The prince agrees to do this in exchange for intimacy with her. Fending off Shadursky, Julia thrusts a silver fork into his throat. The prince was wounded, Beroeva was arrested, the baby was sold to the poor, whom they die in terrible torment.
Shortly before this incident, Vladimir Shadursky threw his kept woman Masha Povetina. At the instigation of Princess Shadursky, who wanted to distract her son from Baroness von Dering, the girl was brought to the young prince by General Von Spielze, taking her from the teachers. Unable to withstand separation from his beloved Masha, the old woman Povetina died, the old man lost his mind. Masha fell in love with the young prince, unaware of his true relation to her: the egoist Shadursky had long wanted to have a beautiful kept woman to show off to her friends. Even less, she could have imagined that she had become the mistress of her own half-brother. Having realized that Masha’s sincere, pure-hearted soul is not suitable for the role of a camellia, Shadursky leaves her without a livelihood.
Masha gets a job as a servant in a pedantic German family, but from there she is kicked out during an illness. Not finding another job, not having housing, Masha sleeps in an abandoned river barge. Here she meets Ivan Veresov, to whom fate was just as unfavorable.
Since birth, Ivan Veresov was brought up by Major Spitsa, not knowing his parental affection, although his father who lived in the neighborhood visited him. Mordenko took him to a theater school, from which Ivan was released as incapable of dumb roles. He also earned his bread by sculpting gypsum figures for street vendors. Ivan lived separately from Mordenko, who did nothing to help his son. Since the exile from the Shadursky house, Mordenko has possessed the only secret passion: to avenge the prince for a slap in the face, and the princess - for contempt. To make capital, he began to give money in growth; His first hostage was Princess Anna Chechevinskaya, who took off her pectoral cross. Gradually, Mordenko began to buy expired promissory Shadursky bills, waiting for the day when he could finally ruin his enemies. Absorbed in this idea, Mordenko became so suspicious that he accused his own son of complicity with the robbers, who had come to kill the moneylender. Ivan was arrested, fell into the society of murderers and bandits and survived in prison only thanks to the intercession of one of them, Ramsey. Released, Ivan had neither housing, nor means, because of which he was forced to spend the night in a barque. His ways with Masha Po-vetina soon diverged, but they were destined to meet again.
Conscious of the hopelessness of his situation, Masha decides to drown herself in the hole. But at the last minute she is saved by an old beggar and a prostitute Chukha. Masha notices that the Chuha, which has sunk to the bottom of its life, once must have received a good upbringing. Women are imbued with trust in each other, and Chukha tells Masha the story of her life - the life of the former Princess Chechevinsky - not suspecting that her lost daughter is in front of her. Chukha leads Masha to spend the night in a brothel, where she again meets Ivan Veresov and saves him from bullying by bandits. But young people are breaking up again. Having escaped from the brothel, after hard life upheavals, Masha finds herself in a brothel.
Mr. Beroev is trying to help out the arrested wife, but this is hindered by the Shadursky, who are afraid of a fair punishment for his son. The people they bribed tossed Beroeva a set of the banned magazine Bell, thus condemning him to arrest. Unable to withstand a prison life, public shame, the arrest of her husband, Yulia Beroeva, from a strong nervous shock, falls into prison in a lethargic dream, which others take for death. She is buried in the far corner of the Mitrofanievsky cemetery. Soon, a fugitive criminal, Grechka, digs up a grave, hoping to remove from Beroeva’s incense with the “unchangeable ruble,” which she kept as a memory of children. To the horror of Buckwheat, the dead rises from the tomb. “Associators” find and care for Beroyeva, who have fake money production near the cemetery.
Mordenko finally succeeds in carrying out his revenge plan: he presents for payment a huge amount of bills, which should ruin the Shadurskys. But Mordenko cannot withstand shock and is seriously ill. Before his death, he finds his son, Ivan Veresov, and bequeaths his fortune to him, taking an oath from him that he will take revenge on Shadursky to the end. To get Ivan to break the oath, Princess Shadurskaya reveals to him the secret of his birth and plays the role of a loving mother, who finally found her son, before the young man. Ivan tears the bills into pieces, after which the princess stops meeting with him. The last person to leave a bright mark in Ivan's life is Masha Povetina; he is trying to find her.
On the Fontanka embankment, the crowd mocks Chukha. Under the general laughter, a completely drunk Chuha calls himself Princess Chechevinsky. This is heard by Count Nikolai Kallash passing by and, amazed, takes her to his luxurious home. In conversation with the sober Chukha, the real name of Kallash is revealed: this is her brother, Prince Nikolai Chechevinsky. In the heart of a fraudster and gambler, pity and love for his sister awaken. He promises that she will be the wife of a prince who once dishonored her. Nikolai hires a doctor who slowly poisons Tatyana Lvovna Shadurskaya. With the help of the clever adventure carried out by Baroness von Dering, Nikolai forces the widowed Shadursky to marry his sister. Anna forces the prince to tell whom he gave her daughter to. Nikolai Chechevinsky helps his sister get an answer from Generalshon von Spilze, pointed out by Shadursky. Anna in horror learns that the girl Masha, whom she saved from suicide, was her daughter. She rushes in search of her daughter, but finds her dying of consumption, to which Masha brought a terrible life in a brothel. At the funeral of Masha is present and Ivan Veresov. Soon, he bequeaths to Anna Chechevinskaya the money remaining with him and shoots. He is buried in a cemetery for suicides and animals, next to the grave of his mother’s beloved dog, Princess Shadurskaya.
Accidentally seeing a photograph of Nicholas's companion, Baroness von Dering, Anna recognizes her former maid Natasha. Nikolay blackmails the baroness in order to return the money to his sisters, but in response to blackmail, the "associators" lure him to ride on the underground channels of St. Petersburg and kill him there. The Baroness and Bodlevsky leave for Warsaw to "fish in the muddy waters" of the Polish uprising there.
Vladimir Shadursky marries the rich Shishneeva, in their family the same “decorum of secular decency” is observed, which was observed in the family of older Shadursky. The prince has “six pairs of excellent horses and a couple of the same dancers”. The venerable Generalsch von Spilze closes his craft in organizing various affairs and becomes a highly moral person.
After leaving prison, the acquitted husband of Beroeva visits the grave of his wife. But in the cemetery he meets living Julia. Not wanting to remain in their homeland, where Julia does not even have the right to life, the couple take their children and leave for the United States.
