: The boyar daughter secretly marries the son of a disgraced boyar and goes with him to war. Having completed the feat, the newlyweds return to the capital, where they receive forgiveness and well-deserved honors.
The narrator yearns for the times when “Russians were Russians,” and Moscow beauties wore sundresses, rather than flaunting in gallo-Saxon outfits. To resurrect these glorious times, the narrator decided to retell the story he had heard from his grandfather's grandmother.
Once upon a time in Moscow, a white boy lived a rich boyar Matvey Andreev, the tsar’s right hand and conscience, a hospice and a very generous man. Boyar has already passed sixty years, his wife has long died, and the only joy of Matvey was the daughter Natalia. No one could compare with Natalya neither beauty nor meek disposition. Not knowing the letters, she grew like a flower, "had a lovely soul, was tender, like a turtledove, innocent, like a lamb, sweet, like the month of May." Going to the mass, the girl needleworked all day, and in the evenings she met girlfriends at hen parties. Mother Natalya was replaced by an old nanny, a faithful servant of the late noblewoman.
Natalia led such a life until the "seventeenth spring of her life." Once a girl noticed that all the creatures of the earth have a couple, and the need to love awoke in her heart. Natalya became sad and thoughtful, for she could not understand the vague desires of her heart. One day in the winter, coming to the mass, the girl noticed in the temple a beautiful young man in a blue caftan with gold buttons, and immediately realized that it was him. The next three days the young man did not appear in the church, and on the fourth day Natalya saw him again.
For several days in a row he accompanied the girl to the gate of her tower, not daring to speak, and then came to her house. The nanny allowed the lovers to meet. The young man, whose name was Alexei, confessed love to Natalia and persuaded her to marry him secretly. Alexei was afraid that the boyar would not accept him as a son-in-law, and promised Natalya that they would rush to Matvey’s feet after the wedding.
The nanny was bribed, and that evening Alex brought Natalia to a dilapidated church, where they were crowned by an old priest. Then, taking with them an old nanny, the newlyweds went into the thicket of a dense forest. There was a hut in which they settled. The nurse, trembling with fear, decided that she had given her darling to the robber. Then Alexey admitted that he is the son of the disgraced boyar of Luboslavsky. About thirty years ago, several noble boyars "rebelled against the legitimate authority of the young sovereign." Alexei’s father did not participate in the riot, but was arrested on false libel. “A faithful friend opened the door of the dungeon to him,” the boyar fled, lived for many years among foreign tribes and died in the arms of his only son. All this time, the boyar received letters from a friend. Having buried his father, Alex returned to Moscow to restore the honor of the family. A friend gave him refuge in the wilds of the forest and died without waiting for the young man. Having settled in a forest house, Alexey often began to visit Moscow, where he saw Natalia and fell in love. He made acquaintance with the nanny, told her about his passion, and she admitted him to the girl.
Meanwhile, boyar Matvey discovered the loss. He showed a farewell letter written by Alexei, the king, and the sovereign ordered the daughter of his faithful servant to be found. Searches continued until the summer, but were unsuccessful. All this time, Natalia lived in the wilderness with her beloved husband and nanny.
Despite the cloudless happiness, the daughter did not forget about her father. A faithful man brought them news of the boyar. Once he brought another message - about the war with the Lithuanians. Alex decided to go to war in order to restore the honor of a kind by feat. He decided to take Natalya to his father, but she refused to part with her husband and went to war with him, dressing in a man’s dress and introducing himself as Alexei’s younger brother.
After some time, the messenger brought the king the news of victory. The warlords described in detail the battle to the sovereign and spoke of the brave brothers who first rushed to the enemy and carried the others along. Affectionately meeting the hero, the tsar found out that this was the son of the boyar of Luboslavsky. The sovereign already knew about the unfair denunciation of the rebel who had recently died. Boyarin Matvey was happy to recognize Natalia as the hero’s younger brother. Both the king and the old boyar forgave the young spouses arbitrariness. They moved to the city and got married again. Alexei became close to the king, and Boyarin Matvey lived to a very old age and died surrounded by his beloved grandchildren.
Centuries later, the narrator found a tombstone with the names of the Luboslav spouses, located on the site of a dilapidated church, where the lovers got married for the first time.
