Siberia, 1930s. Ten-year-old Ilka runs away from home to escape his stepmother and joins a team of loggers rafting wood along the Mana River. Here, the young hero learns the dangerous trade and finds friends.

The play, traditionally considered a precursor to Uncle Vanya, contains many characters, situations, and fragments of text that were later carried over into Uncle Vanya from The Wood Demon. In this play, as in all of Chekhov's works, the characteristics of the Russian national character are reflected. Nature and man are interconnected: man first cleared the forest, and then civilization cleared man. Spiritual values have been lost, traditions destroyed, and the ability to empathize and feel for others has vanished.

In an ordinary Soviet apartment, where an ordinary Soviet family lives, suddenly ... the donkey breaks in. All attempts to expel the animal end in vain. Neither the police, nor the veterinary service, nor even the local hooligan can help. And only the ubiquitous film-goers, who needed an animal for filming a movie, manage to put the donkey out of the apartment.