Exposing the customs of provincial philistinism in the years of NEP. Small town. Mitya, going to the party of his bride Shurochka, finds a dying woman with infants. When he comes to visit the child, everyone decides that he was the father - and kicks him out. Mitya decides to drown himself. Unknown saves him and helps to stage his own funeral. During the mourning ceremony, Mitya rise from the grave, thanks the inhabitants petrified by horror, and leaves the city forever.