The young, proud Stepan Kasatsky has a seemingly bright future ahead of him. But after he experiences great heartbreak and humiliation he flees, and later dedicates himself to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Stepan takes the name "Father Sergei," and even though he becomes a celebrated churchman, he continues to struggle with pride and lust.

Father Sergei comes to realize that his reputation as a great holy man is groundless. He leaves the Church to seek out a simple and decent woman whom he had known as a child. At last he learns that not he but she is the saint, and that true saints are ordinary people unaware of their own prosaic goodness.