John Shilcott, a member of the English Parliament, a nervous, sickly man, has long since lost all energy for work, and only at times the increasing doses of morphine, which he injects into himself, give him the illusion of an influx of vitality. In his family life, too, not all is not well: over the past three years, he has become estranged from his wife, there is no spiritual closeness between them, and Ava Shilkott begs her father to help her get a divorce...

This film captures a stage production at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, accompanied by the choir of Moscow Synagogue. Brothers Isaak and Borukh are both in love with Sarra, but Sarra chooses Isaac and they got married. However, Sarra could not conceive for ten years, and their Rabbi tells them that according to Jewish law, they must divorce. Isaak's parents push him to sign the divorce paper, then their Rabbi drops the divorce paper to Sarra's feet. She tells Isaac about her grief, and Isaak commits suicide. Soon after-wards, Sore realizes that she is pregnant, but she is now single.

A female doctor is so busy with her work that she has too little time for her fiancé. He falls in love with a waitress and the two have a child. Though considered by some to be a proto-feminist yarn, the film dwells on the consequences that equal rights for women may generate rather than openly champion suffrage. Similar in to Ibsen's The Doll House in many ways, the film provides mannered, solemn melodrama, ably acted by Mosjoukine and Yureneva.

Pastor Talnoх furiously urges the flock to fight temptations, but he himself becomes a victim of temptation. In his house appears Satan, pushing the hero to theft and spiritual fall.