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Katerina is bored of life with her husband Zinovy Ismailov, a rich provincial merchant. When Zinovy leaves on business, his suspicious father Boris makes her swear faithfulness to his son. The workmen in the yard molest the fat cook Aksinia and encourage the foreman Sergei to rape her for their amusement. Katerina comes out to defend Aksinia whereupon Sergei seizes her hand with its wedding-ring on one finger and squeezes it until it hurts. Katerina feels weak before Sergei's strength. That night Sergei visits Katerina in her bedroom and seduces her. In his son's absence, Boris decides himself to sleep with his daughter-in-law. To his rage, he finds Sergei coming out of her room. He whips the foreman mercilessly, after which he demands food from Katerina. In revenge, she gives him poisoned mushrooms and he suffers an agonizing death. Making love in her bedroom with Sergei, Katerina sees the ghost of Boris cursing her, but is unafraid. When her husband Zinovy returns, she strangles him with Sergei's help, and hides the body in a cellar. Her regular checking of the cellar is noticed by a drunken peasant who goes there himself, expecting to find hidden vodka. Seeing Zinovy's body, he runs to tell the police. Displeased and bored not to have been invited to Katerina and Sergei's wedding, the police are delighted to hear about the body. They rush to interrupt the wedding feast, Katerina confesses everything, and she and Sergei are arrested. A large group of convicts, including Katerina and Sergei, is travelling to Siberia and stops for the night beside a lake. Sergei has now tired of Katerina and flirts with the beautiful young Sonyetka. When Katerina tries to get him back, he asks her for her stockings, saying he is cold. She gives them to him, but he passes them straight on to Sonyetka and together he and Sonyetka mock Katerina. In rage and despair, Katerina drags Sonyetka and herself into the lake, where they both drown.
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