The film has three parts, each inspired by a Chekhov short story;
Part 1 The Cross of Saint Anne (Анна на шее)
The film begins with a beautiful and strange wedding scene. The young girl, Anna, is sad and resigned, the husband, Modest Alekceevitch, much older, is clearly satisfied. Anna lived with her good but alcoholic father and her two younger brothers. By agreeing to marry an old but wealthy civil servant, she thought she could easily provide for her family. But that was without taking into account the severity and avarice of her husband. However, to stand out among the city's notables, Modest Alekseevich gives Anna money to buy a ball dress. Anna’s success is resounding. But Anna's sad married life, punctuated by dazzling balls, continues. Modest Alekseevich obtains his decoration of the cross of Saint Anne and Anna does not see the misery into which her father and two brothers sink.
Part 2 The Death of a Civil Servant
Civil servant Cheriakov and his wife are sitting in the second row of a concert hall watching a ballet. Obviously not used to this kind of spectacle, Cheriakov ends up accepting the apple handed to him by his wife and begins to devour it. But here he is, sneezing with his mouth full on the back of a general sitting right in front of him. He, without even turning around, delicately wipes the back of his neck. But now Cheriakov, panicked by his clumsy gesture, wants to apologize, preventing the general from watching the show. Sure that he has not understood to what extent he regrets his act, during the intermission he goes to interrupt a conversation that the general is having with a lady. And although the general says that he has forgotten the incident, our official is not convinced. The following night, he does not sleep and in the morning he goes to besiege the general's office to apologize in due form. Of course he only exasperates the general. After a day of vain efforts he lies down on a sofa from which he will not get up.
Part 3: The Chameleon
A young man eats in the street while playing with a small dog who suddenly bites his finger. Furious, the young man chases him and ends up grabbing him and showing his finger to passers-by while complaining very loudly. Two police officers approach and the most senior begins to draw up a report against the dog's owner. But who is the owner? It's the general says a passerby, immediately the police officer changes his attitude and makes the young man responsible for the incident. But after all this dog is perhaps not the general’s…
