The action takes place in the taiga district center on an early summer morning. Valentina, a slender, pretty girl of about eighteen, goes to the teahouse, where she works, and on the way he examines the front garden in front of the house: again the boards are removed from the fence, the gate is torn off. She inserts the boards, spreads the crushed grass and begins to repair the gate. Throughout the action, she does this several times, because for some reason passersby prefer to walk straight on the lawn, bypassing the gate.

Valentine is in love with the local investigator Shamanov, who does not notice her feelings. Shamanov goes to pharmacist Kashkina, who lives next to the teahouse, and therefore Valentina, like the whole village, is aware of their connection. She suffers silently. Shamanov is about thirty, but he feels a lot like a living and tired person. His favorite saying: “I want to retire.” His mistress, Kashkina, is offended that he does not tell her anything about himself, although she already knows a lot from his city friends. Previously, he worked as an investigator in the city, he was promised a great future, he had a beautiful wife, a car and all sorts of other benefits. However, he was one of those for whom the truth is more important than the situation, and therefore, investigating the case of the son of some dignitary who shot down the man, the Shamans, despite pressure from above, did not want to hush up the case. As a result, however, people were found stronger than him. The court was adjourned, the investigation was given another news. Shamanov was offended, quit his job, broke up with his wife, began to dress somehow, and then left here, in the taiga district center, where, reluctantly, he almost formally fulfills his duties. Shamanov considers his life to be over. Two days later, a trial should be held on the very case that he began to lead and because of which he left, he is invited to participate as a witness, but he refuses. He is not interested. He was disappointed and no longer believed in the possibility of establishing justice. He no longer wants to fight. However, in the district center, Shamans still stand out sharply - both Kashkina and Valentina feel his eccentricity and are drawn to him.

Pashka, the son of the barmaid Good, and the stepson of the local worker Dergachev, are in love with Valentina. Arriving from the city, Pashka constantly spins around Valentina, invites her to dance. But Valentine firmly refuses him. Pashka hints that he knows his opponent and, posing as a tough guy, even threatens to deal with him. Pashka is constantly at the center of family contention. His mother and Dergachev are attached to each other, we can say they love each other. However, Pashka is Dergachev’s non-healing wound even with time, because he was born from another person when Dergachev was at the front. Mother asks her son to leave, but Pashka is not very disposed to obey her. He is also offended: why should he abandon his own house, when he plans to marry Valentine, settle here.

Dergachev is repairing the teahouse, it is clear that he is annoyed, and he pours out this annoyance on his wife, who immediately in the morning demands a drink on the occasion of a meeting with a long-time friend, who came from the taiga by an old Evenk hunter Yeremeyev. Left alone after his wife’s death, Yeremeyev came to bother about retirement. However, here he will face difficulties: he has neither a work book, nor certificates of work — all his life he hunted, worked in geological parties and did not think about old age.

Another participant in the action is the accountant Mechetkin, a bore and a bureaucrat. He wants to marry and at first has views of Kashkina, hinting to the fact that her connection with Shamanov causes gossip in the village and offends public morality. However, right there, as soon as Kashkina invites him to come to her and even offers a drink, the broken Mechetkin admits his serious intentions. Kashkina knows that Valentina is in love with Shamanov, and therefore, fearing possible rivalry, advises Mechetkin to turn his attention to Valentina. She assures Mechetkin that he, a respected man in the village, can easily succeed if he solidly turns to Valentina's father. Not shelving, Mechetkin woo Valentine. Her father does not mind, but says that he can’t decide anything without Valentina.

Meanwhile, a conversation ensues between Shamanov, who is waiting for a service car in the tea room, and Valentina, who is repairing the front garden fence. Shamanov says that Valentine is doing this in vain because people will never stop going around him. Valentina stubbornly objects: someday they will certainly understand and walk on the sidewalk. Suddenly, Shamanov compliments Valentina: she is a beautiful girl, she looks like a girl whom Shamanov once loved. He asks her why she did not leave for the city, like many of her peers. And suddenly he hears a confession that she is in love, and not with anyone, namely with him, Shamanova. The shamans are confused, it is difficult for him to believe in this, he advises Valentina to throw it out of her head. But then she suddenly begins to feel something special for the girl: she suddenly becomes for him “a ray of light from behind the clouds,” as he tells Kashkina, who accidentally overhears their conversation.

Shamanov advises Pashka, who comes up with threats, to go cool his head, a quarrel ensues between them. Shamanov clearly wants a scandal, he hands out his gun to Pasha and deliberately teases him, saying that she and Valentina have an appointment for ten hours and that she loves him, Shamanova, and she does not need Pasha. Pashka furiously pulls the trigger of the gun. Misfire. Pashka fearfully drops his weapon. But Shamanov is also uneasy. He writes a note to Valentina, really making an appointment for her for ten hours, and asks Yeremeyev to convey it. However, the jealous Kashkina intercepts the note with cunning.

That same evening, Valentina, having witnessed yet another discord between her stepfather and Pasha, whom his own mother insults and persecutes, agrees to go dancing with him out of pity. It is felt that Valentina decided on something serious, because she also goes straight through the front garden, as if having lost faith, that she can overcome general resistance. They are going away. Soon, Shamanov appears and, having met Kashkina, enthusiastically admits to her that something suddenly happened to him today: he, as it were, regains peace. This is due to Valentina, about whom he asks Kashkina. She honestly informs him that Shamanov’s note was with her and that Valentina, unaware of the appointment, had left Pasha. Shamans rushes in her search. Late at night, Valentina and Pashka return. It is clear that they were close, although this did not change their relationship in any way: Pashka, as he was, remained a stranger to her. Feeling remorseful, Kashkina tells Valentina that Shamanov was looking for her, that he loves her. Soon, Shamanov himself appears, he confesses to Valentina that thanks to her a miracle happened to him. Valentine is crying. To her father, who is ready to intercede for her honor, she says that she was not dancing with Pashka and not with Shamanov, but with Mechetkin.

The next morning, Shamanov leaves for the city to speak in court. The play ends with the views of those in the tea-room turning to Valentina who has left the house. She proudly approaches, as usual, the gate and begins to establish it, and then, together with Yeremeyev, corrects the front garden.