SUMMARY IN ENGLISH
Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov is sitting in his drawing room. Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov enters the drawing room in the evening dress. He is looking very formal in his dress. Chubukov asks him the reason for his visit. Then Lomov tells him that he has come to trouble him. Hearing this Chubukov thinks that he has come to borrow money from him. Therefore, he asks him to come out with the facts straightaway. Then Lomov tells him that he has come to ask for her daughter Natalya’s hand for marriage. At this, Chubukov becomes happy and embraces Lomov and kisses him.
Natalya enters and Lomov feels excited. He starts talking to her. He tells her that the Lomovs and Chubukovs had been very friendly. While talking, he says that his Oxen Meadows touched their Birchwoods. Now these Oxen Meadows become the subject of hot discussion between the two. Both of them start claiming the meadows as theirs. Natalya says that however, the meadows were only worth 300 roubles for her; but still, she cannot tolerate unfairness. Then he starts telling the story of how his aunt’s grandmother had given that meadow to the peasants of Chubukov’s grandfather. They used it for 40 years and then they started telling that it was their land.
When they were having this hot discussion, Chubukov entered the room. He also starts arguing with Lomov. Fed up with the discussion, Chubukov threatens to give away the meadows to the peasants. At this, Lomov loses his temper and asks Chubukov how he could give away a property that does not belong to him. Natalya also keeps on making the discussion more heated. Then they start finding fault with each other’s family. Lomov says that he will take the matter of the meadows to the court. At this, Chubukov calls him a pettifogger. Then Lomov says that his family was a reputed one and no one in his family was tried for embezzlement. Lomov also teases Chubukov by telling him that his mother was hump-backed. Then Chubukov says that Lomov’s aunt had run away with an architect. Natalya also participates in the discussion saying that his aunt was a backbiter.
At last, when it becomes very difficult for Chubukov to tolerate, he asks Lomov to get out of his home. When he goes out, Chubukov tells Natalya that Lomov, the cheat had come for a proposal of marriage with her. At this, Natalya asks Chubukov to bring Lomov back. When he refuses to do so, she starts crying and weeping. Chubukov feels helpless and calls back Lomov. After some time they start quarrelling at the breed of their dogs named Guess and Squeezer. Both try to prove their dog superior to the other. At last, Lomov faints and Natalya starts weeping. She thinks that he has died.
After some time Lomov comes to his senses. Then, Chubukov gives his daughter Natalya’s hand in the hand of Lomov. But Natalya again asks Lomov to admit that her dog Squeezer was better than his Guess and thus they start quarrelling again. In the end, when Natalya goes on quarreling with Lomov, Chubukov shouts her down. He asks them to cry for Champagne and not for anything else. Thus they begin their family quarreling with each other.