The story is about how Ivar Kareno tries to publish his philosophical work, refusing to remove radical passages at the professor's request, and fails, being left without a publication, a doctorate, money and a wife.

A young man arrives in a village to visit his uncle, a retired colonel, and finds the local community "enslaved" by a man who, according to him, "will remain in history." The situation develops into a tragicomedy and takes on elements of phantasmagoria.