Ivanov, a driving force in local government and a visionary landowner, feels burnt out at thirty-five. Once the pioneer of scientific farming methods and of education for the peasants, he now drowns in bureaucracy and debt, apathetic to the welfare of his large estate and neglectful of Anna, his terminally ill wife. Sasha, a young educated woman, falls in love with Ivanov and determines to save him." Set in a country suffering from political, ideological and spiritual stagnation, Chekhov's compelling early play anticipates the explosive revolutionary atmosphere of Russia at the turn of the century.