Master and Man

Set in the winter of the 1970s, the story unfolds the day after St. Nicholas's Day during a parish fete. Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov, an innkeeper and church elder, balances his obligations to entertain guests with his urgent desire to negotiate the purchase of a grove from a neighboring proprietor. As he prepares to leave, the tension builds around the potential competition from town buyers, highlighting themes of ambition and the pressures of commerce in a rural setting.