Protassov is a scientist, who believes that the key to a better world lies in chemistry. As a member of the privileged, intellectual Russian elite he is so preoccupied with his own experiments and detached from the world around him, that he is indifferent to the loss of his wife's love, is oblivious to the persistent advances from an obsessed widow, scarcely notices that his sister is edging towards madness and is unaware of a personal danger that awaits him. TV adaptation of Gorky's 1905 stage play.