[4] In revolutionary Petrograd, history teacher Vladimir meets Olga, the daughter of a wealthy citizen who has emigrated abroad.
Shaken by this betrayal, Vladimir retaliates by forming a relationship with the housemaid, Marfusha, an affair that amuses rather than disturbs Olga.
Olga reacts to this tragic news with uncontrollable laughter that lasts for days, only losing interest in Sergei when he returns to Petrograd disabled.
She donates the $15,000 she receives from Dokuchaev to famine relief and begins seeing him regularly, drawing Vladimir into a strange love triangle as a companion and dependent.
He rushes home to find her calmly lying in bed, but she shows him a bloody rag, revealing she is now paralyzed from the waist down.