Description

The plot unfolds in the German spa town of Roulettenburg and centers on Alexei Ivanovich, a young tutor in the family of a bankrupt general. Alexei is passionately in love with the general’s stepdaughter, Polina, who treats him with disdain and involves him in her financial intrigues.

The tension escalates with the arrival of the wealthy “Grandmother,” Antonida Vasilyevna, whose inheritance the general and his circle were so desperately counting on. Instead of leaving her fortune to her relatives, the energetic old woman falls victim to the gambling urge herself and, in just a few days, loses nearly her entire vast estate at the roulette table.