The story takes place in the village of Shalmovo, where two peasant sportsmen, Filimon Slyunka and Ignat Ryabov, are sitting in a pothouse turned restaurant. Slyunka is an old man who used to be a house-serf and now lives off his old wife's alms. Ryabov is a silent, sturdy peasant. Slyunka and Ryabov are trying to convince the innkeeper, Semyon Mitritch, to give them a gun that they had left as co...