Going down to the frozen river from his estate, the student Voronov sees an unfamiliar little man near the bridge. He stands with both hands on a crutch. The student notices that the man shouted something to a passing cart and was coughed violently. When Voronov runs to the bridge, the man is still coughing.

At first it seems to the student that this is an ordinary fool, a tramp wandering around holy places. But then Voronov looks into his face under a makeshift hat with headphones, and realizes: this is not a fool, but a beggar and a very sick man. The student notices that he is dressed poorly, but unusually neatly and cleanly.

And already quite unusual was the face - the face of a teenager about forty years old: pale and emaciated, simple and sad.

A man bows to the student and goes to the bridge, leaning on a crutch and hardly rearranging thin legs in large, broken bast shoes and thin, old onuchi.

Voronov catches up with the wanderer and starts a conversation with him. As a medical student, he understands that his cough is not good, and advises a person to inhale smoke from burnt nitrate. The wanderer nods in agreement, but obviously does not attach any importance to the advice.

Voronov learns that the wanderer is coming from afar. He offers him money and an overnight stay at his estate. The wanderer agrees to take the money, although he does not care about them, but refuses to spend the night, despite the severe frost and the impending night.

The wanderer firmly decides to spend the night in a neighboring village and turns onto the road leading to it, which runs through the steppe open to all winds. The student runs to the estate, then catches up with the wanderer on the edge of the steppe and gives the money back. Continuing the conversation, the ravens find out that this strange man, who has called himself Luke, does not believe in heaven or hell. He believes Luke only in God and in his destiny and lives "like birds of the air."

And what about the birds of the sky? All kinds of animal birds, they, brother, don’t think about paradises, they’re not afraid to freeze.

Having said goodbye to Luka, Voronov returned to the estate, and the wanderer set off on a journey through the steppe "at dusk and a wavy snow swell."

In the evening, the student cannot sleep for a long time, thinks about the wanderer and worries about his mother, who is still not at home. At night, the Ravens go out into the courtyard and discover that a blizzard has begun.

Two times this night Voronov gets to the edge of the garden, peers into the blizzard, listens to the imperious and wild roar of the garden and looks at two bright stars - Arcturus and Mars - which shine "over the white sea of ​​snowstorms."

Towards the morning Voronova is awakened by the sound of an unfastened shutter. He goes out onto the porch and sees how, with a resounding creak, with a squeal, a familiar three drives in at the gate - it was mother who arrived.

When the student runs up to the sleigh, the mother and the coachman “with one voice” inform him that on the road through the steppe “a dead body lies in the snow”.