Spring Waters

An ageing lonesome man, Dimitri Pavlovich Sanin, holds a celebration at his manor. He leaves for his study and the iron ring which he finds in his table returns him in his memories forty years back to when he was a handsome twenty-four-year old young man. At that time, he was returning from Italy to Russia. He planned to spend just one night in a small Austrian town but accidentally wandered into an Italian sweetshop where he was asked for help by a scared girl. Sanin managed to awaken her small brother from unconsciousness. The beautiful and grateful Gemma, daughter of the sweetshop's owner, invited him for dinner. Contrary to his plans, Sanin stayed several days. Unlike Gemma's fiancé, the businessman Klüber, he took up her part against an impertinent officer and even agreed to a duel. The officer apologized and Gemma split up with her uptight groom. The romantic relationship between Gemma and Sanin gradually turned to love. Sanin asked for Gemma's hand, decided to sell his manor back in Russia and invest in the sweetshop. His fellow-citizen Polozov introduced him to his charming wife, who was interested in buying the manor. In a short time, Sanin became one of the lovers of the hedonist Marya Polozovova and said good bye to Gemma in a letter. Marya gave him an iron ring as a commemoration. - Sanin rouses from his memories. He never found love again and now only bitterly waits for death.