Micha Balzaminov is a small official of Tsarist Russia, poor and a little simple, “idiot” say the neighbors. As he does not know how to court women or earn a lot of money, he dreams of waking up one day as the husband of a rich woman. It doesn't matter what her looks are because all rich women are beautiful. His mother, with whom he lives alone, decides to take matters into her own hands, that is to say, more precisely, to entrust her son's future to a matchmaker. The latter visibly reigns over the entire neighborhood and is not at pains to offer women waiting for the man of their life or the one who will put an end to their loneliness.
For our hero, closely watched by his mother and the matchmaker, the adventures begin, sometimes transforming into difficult misadventures: he must not only conquer a woman but also convince his family who are not necessarily enthusiastic about the idea of seeing a " idiot” without wealth. It is so difficult that Balzanov goes so far as to dream of being tsar to decree that henceforth the rich must marry the poor and the poor marry the rich…
Among the matchmaker's proposals, a rich widow who is so bored that she wants to try, for lack of other ideas, to break this boredom through marriage. She is neither young nor beautiful but who cares! The marriage is decided. Balzanov is so happy that he leaves the procession to express his joy by dancing alone in the crowd of passers-by. Fortunately the rich widow's men take him back to his future wife...