The story takes place after World War II in the village of Taplar, which is cut off from the world by a swamp and where the people live simply. Only one person knows how to read. Then one day a female teacher appears, and begins to conduct a lesson for children. This is an omen of another change. The village receives electricity, and the swamp is drained. A peasant named Kaziuk resists these changes at first. However, the teacher awakens in him a sexual attraction. In the end, Kaziuk innovates -- he begins to cut rye with a scythe, shattering one of Taplar's centuries long traditions, which demanded cutting rye with a sickle. The story presents the decay of the village's social traditions as a result of contact with a civilization disposed towards progress.