Andrei Vasilievich Kovrin, master, gets nerve disorder. On the advice of a friend, the doctor decides to go to the village. This decision coincides with an invitation to visit a childhood friend Tanya Pesotskaya, who lives with her father, Yegor Semenych, on the estate of Borisovka. April. Description of the huge collapsing house of the Pesotsky with an old park in the English manner. Egor Semenych is a passionate gardener who has devoted his life to his garden and does not know to whom he should transfer his household before death. On the night that Kovrin arrives, Yegor Semenych and Tanya sleep in turn: they monitor workers who save trees from frost. Kovrin and Tanya go to the garden, remember their childhood. From the conversation it is easy to guess that Tanya is not indifferent to Kovrin and that she is bored with her father, who wants to know nothing but the garden, and has turned her into a submissive assistant. Tanya also likes Kovrin, he assumes that he can seriously get carried away, but this idea is more likely to make him laugh than seriously takes him.
In the village he leads the same nervous life as in the city: he reads a lot, writes, sleeps little, often smokes and drinks wine. He is extremely impressive. Once he tells Tanya a legend that he did not hear, read, or saw in a dream. A thousand years ago, dressed in a black monk walked through the desert in Syria or Arabia. For several miles, the fishermen saw another black monk - a mirage, which moved along the surface of the lake. Then he was seen in Africa, in Spain, in India, even in the Far North ... Finally he left the limits of the earthly atmosphere and now wanders in the Universe, he may be seen on Mars or on some star of the Southern Cross. The meaning of the legend is that a thousand years after the first appearance, the monk should again appear on earth, and now this time has come ... After a conversation with Tanya, Kovrin goes to the garden and suddenly sees a black monk arising from a vortex from earth to heaven. He flies past Kovrin; it seems to him that the monk is affectionately and slyly smiling at him. Without trying to explain the strange phenomenon, Kovrin returns to the house. He is engrossed in fun. He sings, dances, and everyone finds that he has a special, inspired face.
On the evening of the same day, Yegor Semenych comes into Kovrin’s room. He starts a conversation, from which it is clear that he wants to marry Tanya to Kovrin. to be confident in the future of their economy. “If you had a son with Tanya, then I would have made a gardener out of him.” Tanya and father often quarrel. Comforting Tanya, Kovrin once realizes that he has no closer people than she and Yegor Semenych in the whole world. Soon, a black monk visits him again, and a conversation occurs between them, in which the monk admits that he exists only in Kovrin’s imagination. “You are one of those few who are rightly called God's chosen ones. You serve eternal truth. ” All this is very pleasant to listen to Kovrin, but he fears that he is mentally ill. The monk objects to this, that all ingenious people are sick. "My friend, only ordinary, gregarious people are healthy and normal." Joyfully excited Kovrin meets Tanya and declares her love.
Preparing for the wedding. Kovrin works hard without noticing the hustle and bustle. He is happy. She meets a black monk once or twice a week and talks for a long time. He became convinced of his own genius. After the wedding, Tanya and Kovrin move to the city. One night, a black monk visits Kovrina again, they talk. Tanya finds her husband talking to an invisible interlocutor. She is scared, like Yegor Semenovich, who is staying at their house. Tanya persuades Kovrin to be treated, he agrees in fear. He understands that he is crazy.
Kovrin was treated and almost recovered. Together with Tanya, she spends summer at her father-in-law in the village. It works a little, does not drink wine and does not smoke. He's bored. He quarrels with Tanya and reproaches her for making him heal. “I went crazy, I had megalomania, but I was cheerful, cheerful and even happy, I was interesting and original ...”
He gets an independent department. But on the day of the first lecture he informs with a telegram that he will not read due to illness. His throat is bleeding. He already lives not with Tanya, but with another woman, two years older than him - Varvara Nikolaevna, who takes care of him like a child. They go to Crimea and stop on the road in Sevastopol. At home, an hour before departure, he received a letter from Tanya, but he only reads it in Sevastopol. Tanya announces the death of his father, accuses him of this death and curses. He is seized by "anxiety, like fear." He clearly understands that he is mediocrity. He goes to the balcony and sees a black monk. “Why didn’t you believe me? He asked reproachfully, looking affectionately at Kovrin. “If you believed me then that you were a genius, then you would not have spent these two years so sadly and poorly.” Kovrin again believes that he is God's chosen one, a genius, not noticing that blood is coming from the throat. Calls Tanya, falls and dies: "a blissful smile froze on his face."
