Ivan Petrovich, a twenty-four-year-old novice writer, in search of a new apartment meets a strange old man with a dog on St. Petersburg street. Impossibly thin, in tatters, he used to sit for hours in Miller’s pastry shop near Voznesensky Prospekt, basking in the stove and staring at one of the visitors with a dead, unseeing look. On this March evening, one of them is outraged by the "impoliteness" of the poor. He leaves in fear and dies nearby on the sidewalk. Arriving home to a stranger, Ivan Petrovich learns his name - Smith - and decides to settle in his empty house under the very roof of an apartment building,

Since childhood, an orphan, Ivan Petrovich grew up in the family of Nikolai Sergeyevich Ikhmenev, a small nobleman of an old family, who manages the rich estate of Prince Peter Alexandrovich Valkovsky. Friendship and love connected him with the daughter of Ikhmenevs Natasha, three years younger than him. As a young man, the hero left for St. Petersburg, to the university, and he saw his “friends” only five years later, when they moved to the capital because of a quarrel with Valkovsky. The last many years has shown friendship and trust to his manager, to the extent that he sent his nineteen-year-old son Alyosha to "educate" him. Believing rumors about the desire of the Ikhmenevs to marry the young prince to his daughter, Valkovsky accused the good, honest and naive old man of theft and started a lawsuit.

Ivan Petrovich is almost a daily guest at the Ikhmenevs, where he is again adopted as a native. It is here that he reads his first novel, just published and having extreme success. The love between him and Natasha is growing stronger, it is already a question of a wedding, with which, however, they decide to wait one year until the literary position of the groom is strengthened.

The “wonderful” time passes when Alyosha begins to visit the Ikhmenevs. Valkovsky, having his views on the future of his son, repeats the accusation of pandering and forbids the latter to see Natasha. The insulted Ikhmenev, however, does not suspect the love of his daughter and the young prince until she leaves the parental home for her lover.

Lovers are renting an apartment and want to get married soon. Their relationship is complicated by the unusual character of Alyosha. This beautiful, graceful socialite is a real child by naivety, selflessness, innocence, sincerity, but also by egoism, frivolity, irresponsibility, lack of character. Immensely loving Natasha, he does not try to provide her financially, often leaves her alone, tightens her painful condition of her lover. A keen, limp Alyosha succumbs to the influence of his father, who wants to marry him to the rich. To do this, it is necessary to separate the son from Natasha, and the prince refuses the young man financial support. This is a serious test for a young couple. But Natasha is ready to live modestly and work. In addition, the bride found by the prince for Alyosha, Katya, is a beautiful girl, clean and naive, like her alleged bridegroom. She cannot but be carried away, and the new love, according to the calculation of the clever and penetrating prince, will soon displace the old son from the unstable heart. And Katya herself already loves Alyosha, not knowing that he is not free.

From the very beginning, Natasha’s lover is clear to her: "if I don’t always be with him, constantly, every moment, he will fall out of love with me, forget and leave me." She loves "like crazy", "not good", she "even torment from him - happiness." A stronger nature, she seeks to rule and "torment to pain" - "and therefore‹ ... ›hastened to surrender‹ ... ›to the first sacrifice." Natasha continues to love Ivan Petrovich as a sincere and reliable friend, a support, a “golden heart”, selflessly endowing her with care and warmth."We will live together."

Smith's former apartment is visited by his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Nellie. Struck by her isolation, savagery and beggarly appearance, Ivan Petrovich finds out the conditions of her life: Nelly’s mother recently died of consumption, and the girl fell into the hands of a brutal summary. Thinking about ways to save Nelli, the hero encounters an old school friend Masloboev, a private detective, on the street, with the help of which he tears the girl out of a depraved brothel and settles in his apartment. Nelli was seriously ill, and most importantly, misfortunes and human anger made her incredulous and painfully proud. She suspiciously takes care of herself, slowly thaws, but finally ardently becomes attached to her savior. She is even jealous of Natasha, whose fate is her older friend so busy with.

Already half a year, as the last left from inconsolable parents. The father suffers silently and proudly, shedding tears at night over the portrait of his daughter, and during the day condemning and almost cursing her. Mother takes her soul in conversations about her with Ivan Petrovich, who reports all the news. They are disappointing. Alyosha is getting closer and closer to Katya, not showing up at Natasha for several days. She thinks of the break: “He cannot marry me; he is not able to go against his father. " It is difficult, "when he himself, the first, will forget" her next to another - so Natasha wants to get ahead of the "traitor". However, Alyosha announces to Katya the impossibility of their marriage because of her love for Natasha and her obligations to her. The generosity of the "bride", who approved of his "nobility" and showed participation in the position of a "happy" rival, delights Alyosha. Prince Valkovsky, concerned about the "hardness" of his son, is embarking on a new "move." Coming to Natasha and Alyosha, he pretends to accept their marriage, hoping that the young man’s soothing conscience will no longer be an obstacle to his growing love for Katya. Alyosha is "ecstatic" from his father's act; Ivan Petrovich, on a number of grounds, remarks that the prince is indifferent to the happiness of his son. Natasha also quickly unravels the “game” of Valkovsky, whose plan, however, is quite successful. During a stormy conversation, she exposes him under Alyosha. The pretender decides to act differently: begs to be friends with Ivan Petrovich.

The latter is surprised to learn that the prince uses the services of Masloboev in a certain case related to Nelly and her dead mother. Husband and hints, a classmate dedicates the hero to its essence: many years ago, Valkovsky “climbed” into the enterprise with the English breeder Smith. Wanting to "take" his money "for nothing", he seduced and took abroad the idealist, daughter of Smith, who was passionately in love with him, who gave them to him. The bankrupt old man cursed his daughter. Soon, the fraudster abandoned the girl with whom, apparently, he was nevertheless forced to get married, with little Nelly in her arms, without a livelihood. After long wanderings, the terminally ill mother returned with Nelly to Petersburg in the hope that the girl’s father would take part in her fate. In desperation, she repeatedly tried to write to the scoundrel to her husband, overcoming pride and contempt. Valkovsky himself, cherishing plans for a new profitable marriage, was afraid of legal marriage documents, possibly kept from Nelli's mother. Masloboev was hired for their search.

Valkovsky takes the hero for the evening to Katya, where Alyosha is also present. Natasha’s friend can be convinced of the futility of her hopes for Alyoshina’s love: Natasha’s “groom” cannot break away from Katya’s society. Then Ivan Petrovich and the prince go to dinner in a restaurant. During the conversation, Valkovsky throws off his mask: arrogantly neglects the trust and nobility of Ikhmenev, cynically rants about Natasha’s feminine virtues, opens his mercantile plans for Alyosha and Katya, laughs at Ivan Petrovich’s feelings for Natasha and offers him money for marrying her. This is a strong, but absolutely immoral personality, whose motto is “love yourself,” and use others to your advantage.The prince especially enjoys playing on the exalted feelings of his victims. He himself appreciates only money and rude pleasures. He wants the hero to prepare Natasha for a close separation from Alyosha (he must leave for the village with Katya) without “scenes, pastorals and shilling.” His goal is to remain in the eyes of his son a loving and noble father "for the most convenient possession of Katya’s money later."

Far from his father’s plans, Alyosha is torn between two girls, no longer knowing which one he loves more. However, Katya, by his nature, is more of a “couple." Before leaving, the rivals meet and decide the fate of Alyosha in addition to his participation: Natasha painfully gives in to Katya her lover, “without character” and childishly “near-minded” in her mind. In a strange way, “this is what” she “loved in him most of all”, and now Katya loves the same.

Valkovsky offers the abandoned Natasha money for contacting the depraved old man count. Arriving in time, Ivan Petrovich hits and roughly expels the offender. Natasha should return to the parental home. But how to convince old Ikhmenev to forgive, although his beloved, but dishonored his daughter? In addition to other insults, the prince has just won a lawsuit and is robbing his unfortunate father of his small fortune.

For a long time, the Ikhmenevs decided to take an orphan girl to themselves. The choice fell on Nelly. But she refused to live with "cruel" people like her grandfather Smith, who had never forgiven her mother during her lifetime. Begging Nelli to tell Ikhmenev the story of his mother, Ivan Petrovich hopes to soften the old man's heart. His plan succeeds: the family reunites, and Nelly soon becomes the “idol of the whole house” and responds to “universal love” for herself.

On warm June evenings, Ivan Petrovich, Masloboev and the doctor often gather in the hospitable house of the Ikhmenevs on Vasilievsky Island. Separation soon: the old man got a place in Perm. Natasha is sad because of the experience. Clouding family happiness and serious heart disease in Nelly, from which the poor thing soon dies. Before his death, the legitimate daughter of Prince Valkovsky does not forgive, contrary to the Gospel command, his traitor to his father, but, on the contrary, curses him. Natasha, dejected by her future breakup with Ivan Petrovich, regrets that she ruined their possible joint happiness.

These notes were compiled by the hero a year after the events described. Now he is alone, in the hospital, and seems to be dying soon.