Noble masters of carpentry lived in the same village, and Nikita was the greatest craftsman among them. He had an apprentice, Ivan, who, although he did not know how to show the wonders of carpentry, but played the balalaika and sang songs so that the whole village sang along. In the same village there lived a noblewoman with a wicked son, who once wanted to marry Natalia-beauty, a famous lace-maker from Ozyorsk. Natalia had a condition that she would marry only one who surpassed her in mastery.