The protagonist of the story, on whose behalf the story is being taken, arrives at the seaside resort with the intention of staying there for a long time and fully enjoy the desired peace. He had just received his doctorate, and the young lady whom he was courting married another. He feels that the whole chapter of his life is left behind, and this gives him confidence and peace. But suddenly an unexpected meeting breaks his plan to take a break from worries and worries. During a walk, he sees a young woman with a small son and recognizes her. This is Frederic, who disappeared from his life seven years ago. They remember each other, but the tone of their welcoming conversation is tight: Frederic clearly seeks to avoid further communication with him. And the hero loses his head. The meeting stirred up forbidden memories in him about those days of his youth that he spent in the house of his professor, husband Frederic. He again feels in love with a woman who for so long, until the very day of his departure from the house about the professor, treated the young man with maternal tenderness, no more. But on the day he was leaving, she ran into his room, covered the young man with kisses, falling at his feet. At that moment, a door was opened behind her, and the young man, stunned with horror, saw the professor's face. The door closed immediately. Frederick jumped up, in a panic led him out of the house and ordered to immediately run away.

For seven years then he did not receive any news from her, and now, having met by chance at the resort, they did not dare to talk about that episode. They arrange a sailing trip to the island, and there is an explanation between them. Frederic confesses that she loved him all these years, and reproaches the hero for many years of silence when she and her husband so expected news from him. The hero is perplexed: after the episode in the room, he was tormented for a long time by the fear of all who saw Frederic's husband; how does she not understand that he could not write to them, and so easily reproaches him. Frederic wonders if he understood what made her send him so suddenly then, and the hero begins to guess what was the matter. Frederic continues in the meantime: it seemed to her that she heard footsteps outside the door, but there was nobody there, and her husband returned many hours after the hero’s flight. As she talks, he feels something chill in his chest. Instead of a beloved, the hero sees a strange woman next to him. The hero thinks about the professor, that Frederic does not know and never knew that her husband saw her at his feet. He then inaudibly left and returned only a few hours later. All these years, the professor lived next to her, not betraying himself with a single word. The hero realizes with horror that her husband has forgiven everything for her and she still drags the silent burden of his forgiveness. She suddenly ceases to be just a desirable woman for him, in her place he sees a ghost surrounded by an impenetrable shell of deep forgiveness. And he considers himself not entitled to open his eyes to Frederica, to remove this horror from her. Frederic does not suspect what is happening with the hero, and continues to joyfully twitter about her love, and then appoints him a date for the evening. She takes the shocked silence of the hero as an expression of happiness, but he is not able to look into her face. That evening he leaves and on the train tries to imagine how she is waiting for him at the seaside, but he sees not a living woman, but only an ethereal shadow.