The play takes place in Tambov: the first three paintings - in 1929, the remaining six paintings - in 1979.
Former worker, former party member Ivan Prisypkin, who has renamed himself Pierre Skripkina for harmony, is going to marry Elsevira Davidovna Renaissance - her daughter's hairdresser, hairdresser and manicurist cashier. With the future mother-in-law, Rosaliya Pavlovna, who “needs a professional ticket in the house,” Pierre Skripkin walks across the square in front of a huge department store, purchasing from the lotoshnikov everything, in his opinion, necessary for future family life: a toy “dancing people from ballet studios”, a bra, he was taken as a bonnet for a possible future twins, etc. Oleg Bayan (former Bochkin) for fifteen rubles and a bottle of vodka is taken to organize for Prisypkin a real red labor marriage - a class, sublime, elegant and delightful celebration. Their conversation about the upcoming wedding is heard by Zoya Berezkina, a worker, former lover of Prisypkin. In response to perplexed questions, Zoe Prisypkin explains that he loves another. Zoe is crying.
Inhabitants of the youth workers' dormitory discuss the marriage of Prisypkin to a hairdressing daughter and his change of surname. Many condemn him, but some understand him - now it’s not 1919, people want to live for themselves. Bayan teaches Prisypkin good manners: how to dance a foxtrot (“don’t move your lower bust”), how to quietly scratch yourself while dancing, and also gives him other useful tips: don’t wear two ties at the same time, don’t wear a starchy shirt, etc. Suddenly, the sound of a shot is heard - it was Zoya Berezkina who shot herself.
At the wedding of Pierre Skripkin and Elsevira Renaissance Oleg Bayan gives a solemn speech, then plays the piano, everyone sings and drinks. The best man, defending the dignity of the newlywed, starts a quarrel after a quarrel, a fight breaks out, the stove capsizes, a fire breaks out. Arriving firefighters miss one person, the rest all die in the fire.
Fifty years later, at a depth of seven meters, the team digging a foundation trench discovers a frozen human figure covered with earth. The Institute of Human Resurrection reports that corns, which were a sign of workers in the past, were found on the hands of an individual. Voting is carried out among all regions of the federation of the land, by a majority of votes the decision is made: to resurrect the individual in the name of researching the labor skills of the working humanity of the individual. This individual is Prisypkin. The whole world press enthusiastically announces his impending resurrection. The news is transmitted by the correspondents of Chukchi Izvestia, Warsaw Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestia of the Chicago Council, the Roman Red Newspaper, Shanghai Poor and other newspapers. Defrosting is carried out by a professor assisted by Zoya Berezkina, whose attempted suicide fifty years ago failed. Prisypkin wakes up, a bug thawed with him crawls from his collar onto the wall. Finding that he was in 1979, Prisypkin faints.
The reporter tells the audience that in order to facilitate Prisypkin’s transition, doctors ordered him to drink beer (“a mixture that is poisonous in large doses and disgusting in small”), and now the five hundred and twenty medical lab workers who drank this potion are in hospitals. Among those who have heard enough of Prisypkin’s romances, performed by him under the guitar, the epidemic of “falling in love” is spreading: they dance, mutter verses, sigh, and so on. At this time, a crowd led by the director of the zoological garden catches a runaway bug - the rarest specimen of an extinct and popular insect at the beginning of the century.
Under the supervision of a doctor in a clean room on a clean bed lies the dirtiest Prisypkin. He asks to get a hangover and demands to "freeze it back." Zoya Berezkina brings several books at his request, but he does not find anything “for the soul”: books are now only scientific and documentary.
In the middle of the zoological garden on a pedestal is a draped cage surrounded by musicians and a crowd of spectators. Foreign correspondents, ancient old people and old women arrive, a column of children comes up with the song. The director of the zoo in his speech gently reproaches the professor, who thawed Prisypkin, because, guided by external signs, he mistakenly attributed him to “homo sapiens” and to his highest appearance - to the class of workers. In fact, a thawed mammal is a humanoid simulator with an almost human appearance, who responded to the announcement given by the director of the zoo: “Based on the principles of the zoo, I’m looking for a living human body for constant biting and for the maintenance and development of a freshly acquired insect in its normal conditions.” Now they are placed in one cell - “clopus normalis” and “ordinary people vulgar. Prisypkin sings in a cage. The director, wearing gloves and armed with pistols, takes Prisypkin to the podium. He suddenly sees the audience sitting in the hall, and shouts: “Citizens! Brothers! Their! Native! When did you all thaw? Why am I alone in a cage? Why am I suffering? ” Prisypkin is taken away, the cell is pulled.
