The bourgeois wedding of Dekabryukhova is interrupted by the machine-gun fire of revolution. He flees abroad, leaving his wife. Oktyabryukhov stays and adapts to the new life. At the end of the picture there is an attempt at universal reconciliation and the poet's tormenting theme "three-way love". Dekabryuhov returns to his homeland. His wife is already married to Oktyabryukhov. Having learned about it, Dekabryukhov tries to leave, but the newlyweds force him to stay.

The Red Army enters the city, while the White Army leaves it. There are only two people in the landlord’s estate, an old doorkeeper and a grammar school student, the landlord’s son. The house is taken by the Red Army detachment, and the doorkeeper’s son Andrii, a Bolshevik, is among them. The old man does not share his beloved son’s views and protects the landlord’s son hiding him in the attic.