Olga Semenovna Plemyannikova, daughter of a retired college assessor, enjoys universal sympathy: others are attracted by good nature and naivety, radiated by a quiet pink-skinned young lady. Many friends call her nothing more than a "darling."

Olga Semenovna has a constant need to love someone. Her next affection is Ivan Petrovich Kukin, entrepreneur and owner of the Tivoli Amusement Garden. Due to constant rains, the audience does not attend the performance, and Kukin suffers continuous losses, which causes compassion in Olenka and then love for Ivan Petrovich, despite the fact that he is short, skinny and speaks with a liquid tenor.

After the wedding, Olenka gets a job with her husband in the theater. She tells her friends that this is the only place where you can become educated and humane, but an ignorant public needs a booth.

In Lent, Kukin left for Moscow to recruit a troupe, and soon Olenka received a telegram of the following content: "Ivan Petrovich passed away today, we are suddenly waiting for the orders of the funeral Tuesday."

Olga Semenovna is very worried about his death and is in deep mourning. Three months later, passionately in love with Vasily Andreevich Pustovalov, Olenka again marries. Pustovalov manages the timber depot of the merchant Babakayev, and Olenka works at his office, writing out invoices and releasing goods. It seems to her that the forest is the most important and necessary in life, and that she has been trading in the forest a long time ago. Olenka shares all her husband’s thoughts and sits with him on holidays at home. To the advice of acquaintances to go to the theater or to the circus, she replies stubbornly that there is nothing for people of work, and there is nothing good in theaters.

Olga Semenovna lives very well with her husband; every time Pustovalov leaves for the Mogilev province for the forest, she misses and cries, finding solace in conversations with the veterinarian Smirnin, her tenant. Smirnin broke up with his wife, convicting her of treason, and each month sends forty rubles to support his son. Olenka is sorry for Smirnin, she advises the veterinarian to make peace with his wife for the sake of the boy. After six years of a happy marriage, Pustovalov dies, and Olenka is left alone again. She only goes to church or to her husband’s grave. The retreat continues for half a year, and then Olenka converges with the veterinarian. In the mornings, they drink tea together in the garden and Smirnin reads the newspaper aloud. And Olenka, having met a familiar lady in the mail, speaks of the lack of proper veterinary supervision in the city.

Happiness does not last long: the regiment in which the veterinarian serves is transferred almost to Siberia, and Olenka remains completely alone.

Years go by. Olya is getting old; acquaintances lose interest in her. She does not think about anything and she already has no opinions. Among the thoughts and in her heart Olenka has the same emptiness as in the yard. She dreams of a love that would capture her whole being and give her thoughts.

Suddenly, the veterinarian Smirnin returns to Olenka. He reconciled with his wife, retired and decided to stay in the city, especially since it was time to send his son Sasha to the gymnasium.

With the arrival of the family Smirnina Olenka comes to life again. The wife of the veterinarian soon leaves for his sister in Kharkov, Smirnin himself is constantly on a trip, and Olenka takes Sasha to his outhouse. Maternal feelings awaken in her, and the boy becomes Olenka’s new affection. She tells everyone she knows about the advantages of classical education over real and how difficult it was to study at the gymnasium.

Olenka blossomed and rejuvenated again; acquaintances, meeting her on the street, experience, as before, pleasure and call Olga Semenovna a darling.