: A woman from a Siberian village has been working hard all her life for her only daughter, dreaming of bringing her to the people. The daughter leaves her mother, secretly leaving for the city with a young officer, and the woman dies alone.

Pelagia Amosova lived in a Siberian village, worked as a cook in a bakery.

Her husband Pavel was ill, and daughter Alka was more willing to spin around the mirror than she helped with the housework.

Pavel’s elder sister, Anisya, celebrated her birthday, but Pelageya did not wait for an invitation from her, but from Pyotr Ivanovich, the most respected person in the village who celebrated the completion of his daughter and son.

Anisya, who had been married three times, lived freely, she did not drive the men away from herself. She loved Brother Paul, and his wife Pelageya was afraid and respected for her housekeeping and loyalty to her husband.

Expecting that the brother and wife would come to the name day, Anisya laid the rich table, but the relatives did not come, but Alka dragged two local women booze. One of them, Manya the Great, was a small, malicious little old woman on her mind, for which she received the nickname.

The drinkers reported that Pelageya and Pavel went to visit Pyotr Ivanovich. Anisya was offended and put all the rich treats on the table in her hearts - “let the most recent guests piss off, since they disdained theirs”.

Not embarrassed by strangers, she cried inconsolably, ‹...› then jumped up, began to dashingly dance under the clatter of old women’s hands, then again clutched at the wine and sobbed even more ...

Pelageya knew that Pyotr Ivanovich would gather all the “good people” - the rural authorities, and wanted to talk with the chairman of the village council. About ten years ago, when there was not enough bread, Pelagia was invited first. Now she received a note with an invitation at the last moment.

Pyotr Ivanovich, a semi-literate person who completed only three classes, spent his whole life revising - checking the bookkeeping of a collective farm, general store. In 1947, in the first year of Pelagia’s work in the bakery, Pyotr Ivanovich counted her five thousand rubles shortages, and then “found” the money and since then received the bread for nothing.

Pelageya obtained from the chairman a promise to give Alka the opportunity to continue studying, for which she needed a certificate from the village council. Alka is now in eighth grade. She studied poorly, she sat in almost every classroom for two years, but Pelageya dreamed that her daughter would get an education and be pulled out.

Pavel drank several glasses, and he felt completely ill. Pelageya had to take her husband home. At the very huts of the Amosovs, Anisya met and made a scandal all over the street. Pelagia was comforted that “there were no good people nearby,” which means that the scandal will soon be forgotten.

The cook's place in the Pelagia bakery went after she slept with the chairman of the working committee. The woman did not know if her husband had guessed about her betrayal, and still doubted who her daughter's father was.

Doubt crept into the soul - not a weed in the garden that uprooted, and the case is over. Doubt, like muddy water, makes everything unclean and obscure.

Suddenly Pelageya wanted to see Alka, went in search, the benefit was white, and found her in the club, where she danced first with the Komsomol secretary, then with the officer from the military unit standing near the village.

Pelagia was proud of her beautiful daughter and invited the whole company to her. At home, she discovered that Paul was dying.Officer Vladislav saved him - poured medicine into his mouth and sent a car to the regional center for a doctor.

The doctor said that Paul would no longer stand on his feet, but after seventeen days the patient himself left the hut. For two weeks, Pelageya took care of her husband, and Anisya and Alka worked in the bakery.

Vladislav often appeared in a bakery, buying bread for his part, courting Alka and gradually became almost a son-in-law for Pelagia. The woman was happy looking at their love, only one afflicted her - Vladislav did not talk about the future.

Suddenly, Alka, pretending to be pregnant, drove off to the city, and Paul fell down from grief and died three days later. The daughter did not attend the funeral, and Pelagia realized that she never appreciated the timid, humble husband.

After the funeral, Pelageya began to live slowly - she went for mushrooms and berries, and worked around the household. Alka did not write, and the woman was worried.

In the late fall, Pelagia fell ill and became very weak. She resisted the disease, “did all day near the house,” and on fine days went out to look at the bakery and remembered her life.

The firstborn of Pelagia died after the war due to hunger. She could not allow Alka to die, so she cheated on her husband, and then conquered the village with her wonderful bread.

People almost didn’t go to Pelageya - she drove off Anisya right after the funeral. At the October holidays, Manya Bolshaya came to her and said that the village council sent Alka a passport certificate, and her military unit requested.

Pelagia decided that Alka is now with Vladislav. Manya Bolshaya traveled to the city and found out that Alka was working as a waitress in a restaurant, but nothing was known about the child. Pelagia, however, calmed down a bit and decided to ventilate tissue sections stored in the chests that she had been collecting all her life.

Before the New Year, plush jackets were delivered to the general store. The delighted Pelagia bought a jacket for herself and Alka, and on the way back from the daughter of Pyotr Ivanovich, she learned that they no longer wear it.

For Pelagia it was a blow. Looking at the cuts for which she worked hard, she realized that her life had gone in vain. Previously, manufactory was a valuable commodity that could be exchanged for products. Now the shops are full of clothes and fabrics, and the work of Pelagia has depreciated.

Pelagia fell ill and was ill all winter. Occasionally short, awkward letters came from Alka, and Pelageya still did not know whether she lives with Vladislav or alone.

In mid-January, the drunken son of Pyotr Ivanovich went to Pelagia and began to complain that his heart was broken to pieces. Pelagia understood that the guy was suffering because of love for Alka, about which she wrote to her daughter, but she did not care.

In early spring, Pelagia hardly reached the bakery and found that the new cook had turned it into a dirty barn. This finished off the woman.

To live, to walk on the thawed ground with bare feet and with all your chest, inhale the warm wind from the district. And she was lying, and her breathing was heavy, bursting with whistles.

Anisya came to look after Pelageya. The patient did not begin to drive her out - Manya-Bolshaya had already begun to ask the price of her good.

One night, Pyotr Ivanovich came to Pelageya, aged, lowered, with longing in his eyes and under a hop. He said that Alka and Vladislav no longer lived, and admitted that his son was drying on her for a long time. And then Peter Ivanovich began to pray to Pelageya that she would marry Alka to his son - maybe then the guy would stop drinking.

Pelagia was overwhelmed by a "dark, vengeful feeling." She realized that she hated Pyotr Ivanovich since he counted her shortage, because of which Pelageya almost drowned herself in the hole.

Pelagia badly remembered how Peter Ivanovich left. She was suffocated by fever and cough, but it was good to tears, because now she will certainly become related to Peter Ivanovich. For a moment, Pelagia lost consciousness, and then with difficulty slipped onto a cool wooden floor. There, Anisya found her dead in the morning.

Alka did not come to the funeral - “she swam as a barmaid on one of the prominent passenger steamboats that walked along the Northern Dvina”. Arriving a week later, the girl made a magnificent commemoration for her parents, sold the household, boarded up a house and went back to the ship - she did not want to lose such a fun and profitable place.