Plot
After losing his wife during the World War II Veteran Kuzma Kuzmich Iordanov do not work, drinks alcohol, makes up his living by doing some odd jobs. From time to time they call him up at one of the Militia (Police) department to shame him and to threaten him with some jail time because of his "parasitiŃ" type of living his life, but all that staff does not seem to bother him much.
One time Kuzma agrees to help one old lady to deliver a washing machine to her house (there used to be different fees for doing do - if the building had an elevator - there would be one price for it, if there was not one - then it would cost you more money to deliver it as it requires more time and effort) he accidentally drops it and while running downstairs trying to catch it he stumbles and gets hurt bad enough so they have to take him to the hospital. The same old lady that he was delivering this washing machine for comes and visits him. He gets scared thinking she came to talk to him about the washing machine that he broke but as he realizes later she actually came to see if he was doing fine. As they talk she tells him her life story, as well as the story about one poor orphan child Natasha from her village. Kuzma decides to go out there and try to pretend to be Natasha's father.
Natasha indeed thinks this is her father and so truly believes so, that Kuzma decides to become a different person and stay on the right track. He does want to live a different life now as that poor girl really thinks he is her father - that changes Kuzma and not for his own sake but to make somebody's life better he becomes a new man opposed to the heavy drinker he was before.
Read more about this topic: When The Trees Were Tall
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)