The compilation also included the written pieces "The Three Questions", "The Coffee-House of Surat", and "How Much Land Does a Man Need?".
A kind, humble and poor shoemaker named Simon goes out one day to purchase sheep-skins in order to sew a winter coat for his wife and himself to share.
However, Simon decides that in order to afford the skins he must go on a collection to receive the five rubles and twenty kopeks owed to him by his customers.
Feeling disheartened by this, Simon rashly spends the twenty kopeks on vodka and starts to head back home drunkenly, stumbling and talking to himself, cursing the coat dealer.
Initially, he is suspicious and fears that the man may have bad intentions if he is in such a state, assuming Simon to be a drunkard.
Meanwhile, Simon's wife Matryona contemplates whether or not to bake more bread for the night's meal so that there is enough for the following morning's breakfast.
After seeing the stranger take bites at the bread she placed for him on his plate, she begins to feel pity and shows so in her face.
The nobleman outlines strict conditions for the construction of a pair of thick leather boots: they should not lose shape nor become loose at the seams for a year, or else he would have Simon arrested.
Before Michael can answer, a messenger arrives at their door and gives the news that the nobleman has died and asks if they could change the order to slippers for him to wear on his death bed.
The woman explains that she has no relation to them and that the actual mother on her deathbed accidentally crushed the leg of the crippled girl.
He learned the answer to the first question when Matryona felt pity for him, thus smiling and realizing that what dwells in man is "love".
Lastly, he comprehended the answer to the final question when he saw the woman with the two girls from the mother, whose soul he previously did not take, thus smiling and realizing that regardless of being a stranger or a relation to each other, "all men live not by care for themselves but by love."
When Michael finishes, he sings praises to God as wings appear on his back and he rises to return to heaven.