Old men Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and his wife Pulkheria Ivanovna live in solitude in one of the remote villages, called Old World in Little Russia. Their life is so quiet that a guest who accidentally drove into a low noble house, immersed in the greenery of the garden, passions and disturbing unrest of the outside world do not seem to exist at all. The small rooms of the house are filled with all kinds of little things, the doors are sung in different ways, the pantries are filled with supplies, the courtyards under the control of Pulcheria Ivanovna are constantly busy preparing them. Despite the fact that the farm is robbed by the clerk and lackeys, the blessed land produces only in such quantities that Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulkheria Ivanovna do not notice theft at all.

Old men never had children, and all their affection focused on themselves. You can’t look without participation at their mutual love, when with unusual care in their voice they turn to each other to “you”, warning every desire and not yet spoken affectionate word. They like to treat - and if not for the special properties of Little Russian air, which helps digestion, then the guest, no doubt, would have been lying on the table instead of bed after dinner. The old people love to eat themselves - and from the very early morning until late at night you can hear how Pulcheria Ivanovna guesses the wishes of her husband, in an affectionate voice offering one or the other. Sometimes Afanasy Ivanovich loves to play a trick on Pulcheria Ivanovna and suddenly speaks of a fire or war, making his wife scared in earnest and baptized so that her husband’s speeches could never come true. But after a minute, unpleasant thoughts are forgotten, the old people decide that it is time to have a bite, and suddenly the tablecloth and those dishes that Afanasy Ivanovich chooses at the prompt of his wife appear on the table. And quietly, calmly, in the extraordinary harmony of two loving hearts, days go by.

A sad event will forever change the life of this peaceful corner. Favorite cat Pulcheria Ivanovna, usually lying at her feet, disappears in a large forest outside the garden, where wild cats lure her. Three days later, having knocked down in search of a cat, Pulkheria Ivanovna meets her pet in the garden, who came out with a miserable meow from the weeds. Pulcheria Ivanovna feeds the feral and thin runaway, wants to stroke her, but the ungrateful creature throws herself out the window and disappears forever. From this day on, the old woman becomes thoughtful, boring and suddenly announces to Athanasius Ivanovich that this death came for her and they were soon destined to meet in the next world. The only thing the old woman regrets is that there will be no one to look after her husband. She asks the housekeeper Yavdoha to look after Athanasius Ivanovich, threatening the whole of her family with God's punishment if she does not fulfill the order of the lady.

Pulcheria Ivanovna is dying. At the funeral, Afanasy Ivanovich looks strange, as if he does not understand all the wildness of what happened. When he returns to his house and sees how it became empty in his room, he weeps violently and inconsolably, and tears, like a river, pour out of his dull eyes.

Five years have passed since that time. The house decays without its mistress, Afanasy Ivanovich weakens and doubled up against the former. But his longing does not wane with time. In all the objects surrounding him, he sees the deceased, tries to pronounce her name, but in the middle of a word, convulsions bend his face, and the crying of a child breaks out of his already cooling heart.

Strange, but the circumstances of the death of Athanasius Ivanovich resemble the death of his beloved wife. When he slowly walks along the path of the garden, he suddenly hears someone behind him uttering in a clear voice: "Athanasius Ivanovich!" For a moment his face comes alive, and he says: "This is Pulcheria Ivanovna calling me!" He submits to this conviction with the will of an obedient child. “Put me near Pulcheria Ivanovna” - that’s all that he says before his death. His wish was fulfilled. The lord's house was empty, the good was taken away by the men and finally let go by the wind by a distant relative-heir who had arrived.