: Two young men, a Russian and a Jew, decide to exchange documents so that the Russian is a year a Jew and the Russian Jew. But an innocent joke ends tragically.

The novel is based on real events, The Beilis Case.

Part one

A Jew Gershka Rabinovich, the son of a tradesman from Shklov, complains to his Russian friend, the son of a nobleman, Grishka Popov. Having a certificate with one five and a gold medal, Hershka can not enter the university because of the percentage rate. Grishka does not believe that Jews are such an unhappy nation, and offers as a joke to swap places for a year and stay in the shoes of a Jew. In the presence of comrades, they make a deal, demanding that secrecy be maintained.

In a large university city, in the family of Sarah and David Shapiro, a university entrant Gersh Rabinovich rents a room for a rather high price. Sarah is surprised that the young man does not understand a word in Jewish, he hears for the first time that a Jew must have the right to reside in the city, does not know Jewish customs and traditions. Nevertheless, poking fun at Gersh, Sarah is pleased with her tenant. A friendly, cheerful young man is engaged for free with his youngest son, Syomka, and with his eldest daughter Betty. Sarah dreams that Syomka will receive a gold medal.

At the university, Gersh Rabinovich meets Jewish youths who are trying to enroll. He met with applicants Tumarkin and Lapidus. Tumarkin is indignant at the cowardly Lapidus, who is ready to please the oppressors. Lapidus, in turn, hates those who are outraged by Jews who converted to Orthodoxy. He has a dependent mother and sister, for whom he is the only support. Lapidus hopes to go to university and become a doctor.

Together with new friends Gersh does not pass the percentage barrier. In order not to lose a profitable tenant, the Shapiro family helps him get a job in a dental school. Seeing how many obstacles you need to overcome to enter the university with a gold medal and get the right to reside, Gersh is surprised at the humility of the Jews. But Betty, who is also not indifferent to the tenant, takes even more of his thoughts.

In the middle of the night, documents are checked, and a non-resident Gersh is taken to the police station. Being there and seeing the attitude towards the Jews, Gersh more and more thinks of an incomprehensible hostility to this people.

Thanks to the efforts of David Shapiro, Gersh is released. David conducts strange conversations with Gersh: Gersh does not believe that there are streets on which Jews cannot settle, he believes that Jews have secret institutions. By chance, Sarah discovers that Gersh has an account with a large bank. She is surprised that the tenant never talks about his family. He gives strange answers to questions, and Sarah does not understand how this can happen in a Jewish family. Dodging, Gersh says that he is an orphan and the only heir with a wealthy relative. Also, Sarah and David are surprised that the young man in the conversation about the Jews does not say “with us”, but “with you”. Nevertheless, Sarah does not mind that Gersh and Betty were destined for each other.

Gersh invites Betty to the theater. There, in private with a girl, he wants to reveal his secret. He is prepared for the fact that his family does not recognize marriage with a rootless, and even a Jew, but Betty herself does not recognize such love. Gersh expects that upon learning of his title and condition, the Shapiro family will only be happy.

Gersh is ready to tell everything, but then they meet Lapidus, who reports that he converted to Christianity and immediately went to university. To boast in front of a pretty girl, Lapidus explains why his act is beneficial. Betty is indignant: you can’t sell your conscience.

With views of the rich groom, Sarah shares her experiences with the elder sister of David Toyba.She offers to invite a young man to them on Purim holiday and settle the engagement case. At this time, the crying Syomka runs in: Volodka, the son of Cyrilicha’s neighbor, beat him. Volodka is generally a glorious boy, and according to Gersh, who is engaged with him for free, headlong, but his stepfather, a notorious drunkard, mercilessly beats him.

At the festival, Gersh is surprised at traditional Jewish toasts and dances. He, who had previously read in the newspapers that the Hasidim is a "sect of savages," sees that they are having fun and dancing.

In the midst of the holiday, a tearful Cyrilich appears - Volodka disappeared, maybe Syomka knows where he is. Gersh tells the woman that she should ask her husband about this.

Toyba Schlem's husband is unhappy that they interrupted the holiday, reprimands his relatives, and there is no talk of an engagement.

Tumarkin often visits Gersh. Without a residence permit in the city, he often changes the place of accommodation and sometimes sleeps with Shapiro. Sarah decides to make Tumarkin his intermediary, so that he would find out from Gersh his true intentions, but here they find the stabbed Volodka. The boy was mutilated, inflicting many stab wounds on him.

The Shapiro family is preparing for Passover. Gersh wants to know if the Jews add blood to matzo. He sees an article in a newspaper that widely discusses the murder of Volodka. Gersh does not doubt that the stepfather killed the boy, but the newspaper writes that the murder was committed by Jews for ritual purposes.

Gersh comes to the bakery and sees how matzah is baked. He is ashamed of his doubts. Women who came to the bakery looked at him and Betty. After much thought, Gersh decides to seek the advice of a rabbi.

In the waiting room, he sees many people who are discussing the murder of Volodka and fearing pogroms. Gersh asks the rabbi what needs to be done to convert to Judaism. The rabbi sympathizes with Gersha, but can do nothing to help him: the country does not know how to get rid of Jews, why he should become one of the unfortunate and despised. The rabbi shows Gersh a newspaper with an article. Gersh is indignant: it was written by a man who had lost all remnants of conscience and decency, not a single decent Christian would approve of this. To which the rabbi replies that there will be those who believe in this. Didn't Gersh himself have a thought: what if this is true? The rabbi gives Gersh books on ritual killings.

On the eve of Passover, Sarah does the cleaning and finds a letter from Gersh from a certain Vera P., who kisses and hugs him. Sarah is tormented by the thought that Gersh has another bride.

A tearful Syomka runs from the gymnasium: he was beaten by high school students, motivating that the Jews killed Volodka in order to pump out blood. The Shapiro family feels that trouble is coming. Outraged Gersh wants to go to the headmaster, but David stops him. Filming will be expelled from the gymnasium, and they will be deprived of law enforcement. Why take petty troubles to heart? What could be more disgusting than newspaper articles? Gersh is puzzled again.

The preparation for the holiday is interrupted by the arrival of the police. Having searched the house, they take Gersh's papers from his desk. Sarah learns that Vera is his sister.

Left alone with Betty, Gersh tries to prepare her. At first he admits that he does not have a rich aunt, but that he has a father and sister. Betty, deciding that Gersh's father, a wealthy Jew, was contemptuous of this. She, unlike her mother, does not like the new rich.

The Jewish population of the city, fearing pogroms, is trying to leave. Those who are richer go abroad or somewhere far away. Small shopkeepers, artisans, and teachers on the last day before Orthodox Easter rush to the steamboat marina and railway station. The streets are crowded with people sitting on suitcases and knots. Among them are the Shapiro family, with them Gersh Rabinovich, and in fact the son of the provincial leader of the nobility, the nephew of the governor Grigory Popov.

Gersh meets a young man Benya Gurvich, whom he met at the station. Gersh is indignant: why a whole nation should flee because of several dark personalities, this is a shame. Betty and Gurvich believe that this is a shame not for the people, but for those who arranged it. To run for so many years and not get lost on the way is already heroism.

In the morning, the police stabilize the situation, and people go home. Gersh, seeing that the misunderstanding between him and Betty is increasing, decides to tell the whole truth to her parents, and then talk to the girl. But then the police rush into the house and arrest the whole family, except for Sarah. Soon they release Syomka and David. Syomka during interrogation said that they played together with the killed Volodka, but Gersh knew him best of all, who helped Volodka with his studies. David said that he had never seen Volodka’s family. Accusations of ritual rites, they both denied.

A street woman is thrown into Betty’s cell, who tells her that a company of dark personalities recently stabbed the boy so that he would not reveal their thieves secrets. If a woman once again sees her lover, because of which she trades herself, with another woman, she will tell the truth about the murder, because the bag with the books of the murdered boy is with her. Betty realizes that the murdered boy is Volodka.

Interrogating Gersh, the investigator emphasizes that Gersh was engaged with a Russian boy for free. Gersh says that Volodka’s stepfather sells stolen goods, repeatedly beat the boy and threatened to kill him, as he was afraid that Volodka would give him to the police. The investigator presents Gersh with books about the ritual killings that were discovered from him and accuses him of murder. In order not to harm his relationship with Betty, Gersh does not discover that he is not a Jew.

In the meantime, a fever begins with Betty and she ends up in the hospital. Having found a daughter, parents do not leave her, not daring to tell her that Gersh is accused of murder.

Part two

So that the relatives would not have guessed anything, the real Rabinovich and Popov told them to write to them on demand. Then they sent letters to each other. Everything went according to plan, until Gersh was imprisoned, correspondence broke off and the parents of both young men were excited.

They come to the Rabinovichi with a search, pick up a pack of letters of Gersh, and Moishe Rabinovich with his eldest son Abraham-Label go to save him.

Meanwhile, Gersh Rabinovich, who poses as Grigory Popov, enters the university without any problems. Constrained in money, he asks the rector to give him recommendations for tutoring, explaining that he does not want to be dependent on his father.

On the recommendation of the rector, Popov gets a tutor's place in the family of the wealthy landowner Bardo-Bradovsky, who wants to be a tutor from a good family who could be entrusted with raising children. In addition to Popov, teachers of French and German languages ​​live in the family.

Popov gets used to the customs of the family in which he has to live. It seems strange to the youth that the Bardo-Bradovskys are not interested in his family and where he comes from. If he had been in a Jewish family, everything would have been immediately clarified. It also seems strange to Popov that the family only gets together in the dining room, but after the meal everyone scatters in their corners.

Pupils' pupils Petya and Seryozha fell in love with their teacher. They often invite him to play tennis with them or ride horses, which Popov refuses under various pretexts. His thoughts are busy writing from home. The money that he sent has already run out, and his father now has poor earnings, the older sister does not get along well with her husband, the second sister needs to have an operation on which there is no money. Gershka, who has suffered insults and humiliations all his life, from which Grishka Popov defended him, has finally healed in a human way. He does not want to think about what is happening in his family, but he has no right to forget about it.

For the Christmas holidays, the eldest daughter of the Bardo-Bradovskikh Sasha comes from the guesthouse.With her arrival, the house comes to life, the family gets together, parents play with their children. Beautiful girl sinks Popova into the soul. Sasha herself is calm about the young man, inviting him to participate in the celebrations, because of which he has to miss the prayer for the anniversary of the death of his mother.

A young, noble officer, Pierre Shiryaev-Nepyatov, often appears in the house. Popov suspects that he is Sasha’s fiancé, but even without this circumstance, the officer dislikes Popov. Once Shiryaev-Nepyatov pronounces the proverb “for the company, the Jew hanged himself,” which causes laughter among people who had never mentioned Jews before.

In one of the letters, the father reports a certain distant relative of Lapidus. To go to university, the young man converted to Christianity and wrote to his sister. So that the girl settled down, he forced her to convert to Orthodoxy. My sister was poisoned by remorse, but, not having survived this, her mother died. Gersh also receives letters from Popov, who became interested in the ideas of Zionism and believes that Jews should have their own state.

Once at tea, the head of the family, Fektist Feodosievich Bardo-Bradovskikh, reads a newspaper article about the murder of Volodka Chigirinsky. Everyone at the table is confident in the truthfulness of the message, with the exception of the teacher of French. A German teacher declares that Russian Jews, as well as Polish, are savage, fanatical and cannot do without a “Russian sacrifice”. Popov is indignant: how can culturally educated people be so ignorant? It is more than strange to Feoktist Feodosievich that Popov is protecting Jews. His wife, Nadezhda Fedorovna, believes that persecuting people just because they believe otherwise is not worthy, but Jews must be terrible.

Easter arrives, and Sasha, whom Popov yearns for, arrives on vacation. The German starts a conversation about ritual killings. Pierre supported the German, and Sasha waved his hands fastidiously, saying that he was afraid of the Jews, although she and her mother had just given their jewelry in favor of the starving people, and Sasha nearly fainted when she learned that her dog was trying to mutilate a lapdog. Popov is ashamed of the fact that he held Passover not according to Jewish law.

Popov learns that Gersh Rabinovich has been arrested for the murder charge. Now he understands why there are no letters from a friend for so long. The father of the present Grigory Popov sent a letter to the rector asking him why there had been no news from his son for a long time. Popov decides to leave. The Bardo-Bradovskys family warmly says goodbye to Popov, who says that he is going home for a few days, but in fact he is going to help his Russian friend.

Father and son Rabinovichi come to the city where their Gersh is studying to be a dentist. Trying to find him, the Rabinovichi learn strange things: Gersh Rabinovich does not know a word in Jewish, has no idea about Jewish customs and has rich relatives. The Shapiro family is no less surprised to see that Gersh has a father and brother and they don’t understand what kind of rich aunt Sarah is talking about.

At night, David arranges guests for the night to the broker Quetzale, who is not afraid of police checks. Quetzale asks the Rabinovichi what is the situation with the engagement of their son Gersh and Betty Shapiro.

At night, the police come to Quetzal and do a search. Police officers find Rabinovich’s letters of Gersh in Hebrew and a letter of recommendation from a local rabbi. Now the situation of the arrested Rabinovich has worsened. He claims that he does not know a word in Hebrew, and his father found his letters written in Hebrew. Also, from a letter from the rabbi, they concluded that a whole organization is behind Rabinovich. The janitor of the house where the Shapiro family lives testifies that a Jew came to Rabinovich with ravenous eyes and stayed with him for the night.

Rabinovich feels that he cannot bear it anymore. He is ashamed that the Jews suffer these humiliations for so many centuries in a row. And although he will have to break this word, he decides to make a statement.

The investigators, having heard that Rabinovich is actually a nobleman Grigory Ivanovich Popov, laugh out loud. A psychiatrist talks with the accused and finds that the young man reasoned quite well and believed that he feigned insanity.

To Betty recovered faster, Sarah sends her to the cottage to Toyba. Betty agrees only because the woman who was with her in the prison cell lives nearby. At the cottage Betty finds Benya Gurvich, who accidentally, through a friend of the police officer, found out about the gang that killed Volodka. They come to a policeman who hopes that Rabinovich will be released soon.

The real Gersh Rabinovich, under the name of Grigory Popov, comes to rescue a friend. He comes to a cafe where he accidentally meets Quetzale and learns from him that his father and brother were sent home after the stage. Police come to the cafe and arrest for an illegal assembly. The nobleman Popov says to the investigator that he is Gersh Rabinovich, but he laughs.

Gurvich often visits Betty, and they retire, which causes Toyba's displeasure. Gurvich tells the girl how the investigation is going. A familiar policeman seemed to get to the gang, but then he was arrested, and Betty decides to return home.

The Popov’s house is worried that there have been no letters from Grisha for a long time. Learning from what Gersh had arrived, Ivan Ivanovich goes to court. In the courtroom, it becomes clear who the accused is, and a holiday for the Jews is coming, as big as Passover. In the twentieth century, people finally learned that Jews are not vampires and cannibals.

For Hanukkah, the Shapiro family celebrates Betty and Beni Gurvich’s engagement. If you look closely at the bride, you can see how sadness is visible in her eyes. Happy Sarah takes the guests, because no one knows how much effort she had to put in order for Betty to agree to this marriage. No one also knows that Betty received a letter from Grigory Popov. After spending several days in tears, she wrote that let him be a hero to the end and forget about her, the gap between them should not be crossed.

Both young men served a sentence for exchanging documents. Popov made peace with his father, graduated from university and is successfully engaged in science. So many circulars and restrictions rained down on Rabinovich’s head that he was forced to go abroad.