Opposite the Semenov settlements is the Zvezda drinking house, which is under the special care and patronage of Bacchus. His bucket and chariot are also stored here. But the angry and greedy farmers, being proud too much, raised the price of alcohol so that Bacchus himself would dance to their tune. He, furious that due to the high cost of wine, beer and honey, people will drink less, and he will lose his "dearest inheritance", is going to take revenge on arrogant farmers. Bacchus goes to the Zvezda drinking house and sees, among other drunkards, a resident of the Yamskaya Sloboda, young Elisha, a fist fighter, a Buyan, a gambler and a drunkard, who immediately attracts his attention. After drinking the aniseed beer cup, Elisha breaks it on the forehead of the Chumak (a cab, the owner of a drinking establishment), so that ladles, bottles and cups fall from the shelves, and the aisle breaks between the counter and the window. Bacchus joyfully watches the exploits of a hefty young man and wants to make him the instrument of his revenge.
A traffic corporal with a dragoon comes to the noise, hears a complaint from the Chumak and arrests Elisha, who does not dare to quarrel with the police. Concerned about the fate of Elisha, Bacchus on winged tigers flies to his father, Zeus. He sleeps drunk drunk with nectar. Juno, the wife of Zeus, wakes him up, and Bacchus, weeping, asks his parent why he gave the wine to the hands of evil and stingy farmers, and reminds him of the promise once made to Bacchus: to sing everyone in this world. Why is Zeus breaking his vow now? He answers his son that he received a request from Ceres: she complains that the peasants were completely drunk and stopped farming. Bacchus convinces Zeus to convene all the gods for advice in order to judge them with Ceres, and asks his father to help free Elisha from prison. Zeus calls on Hermia (Hermes. - A.V.), tells him to gather all the inhabitants of Olympus, and after that - to free Elisha.
At night, Yermiy, under the guise of a corporal, sneaks into a police prison and unsuccessfully tries to wake a drunken Elisha, next to whom a tipsy young man in an unbuttoned dress sleeps with an equally sound sleep. Then Yermiy undresses both of them, dresses the girl in Elisha’s clothes, and his woman’s dress, flies out with the insensible Elisha out the window and takes him to Kalinkin’s house, where dissolute women languish under guard.
In the morning, the boss wakes up her wards and entrusts everyone with some kind of work. Elisha, having regained his senses, thinks that by some miracle he ended up in a convent, and takes the harsh elderly boss for the abbess. She immediately guesses that the imaginary girl is the most good fellow. Inflamed with passion for him, she takes him to her chambers and asks that the young man in everything be revealed to her.
He tells her the story of his life in detail: before becoming a coachman in St. Petersburg, he lived in Zimogorye with his brother, wife and mother. The Zimogorskites and the Valdai quarreled over the fact that they could not draw a line between their pastures. The matter came to a bloody battle: Brother Ilyukha was completely bitten off by an ear, and the mother, who stayed home and prayed that her children would return alive, was so diarrheic with fear that they gave soul to God. Elisha was sent to St. Petersburg and identified as a coachman at the station.
After listening to the story of Elisha, the boss invites him to share a bed with her and then he will have no shortage. At the same time, she demands that he be careful and not talk to any of the arrested libertines.
Meanwhile, at the behest of Zeus, the gods gather for advice to judge the dispute between Bacchus and Ceres. Ceres sets out the reasons for his dissatisfaction with the drunkenness of the plowmen. Bacchus is justified by the fact that wine amuses a person’s heart: even the most miserable, having drunk a glass, forgets about his troubles, and a warrior in a hop becomes braver. Zeus, after listening to Ceres and Bacchus, utters the following: he, Zeus, deposed Troy in order to build Rome, is going to elevate Wisdom to the throne. She will produce a “most useful law” that will pacify the farmers, and then the farmers and plowmen will not interfere with each other.
The boss, having sent her wards to bed, dresses up and preens, hoping with the help of whitewash and rouge to “arouse the fun” of Elisha who liked her. He does not deceive her expectations. But they fail to fall asleep: the head of the guard, already an elderly man, secretly in love with the boss, walks around the watch all the rooms and discovers Elisha, who barely has time to put on a woman’s dress. Seeing the girl who is not on his register, the head of the guard is angry and, despite the persuasion of the head, orders to take the unknown person under arrest.
Yermy, this time taking the form of a petimeter (dandy, fashionista. - A.V.), again helps Elisha: he gives him an invisible hat, in which he again penetrates the boss’s room and spends the rest of the night with her in love joys. In the morning, the head of the guard, finding the missing of the arrested, punishes the sergeant who missed the fugitive. Elisha lives happily ever after, not knowing anything in need, and delights the old woman with love, without taking off her invisible hat. However, after a few months, Bacchus inspires Elisha to leave Kalinkin at home in order to slaughter farmers. One morning, when the boss is asleep, Elisha, in an invisible hat, leaves, leaving her with her trousers and camisole. The head of the guard discovers men's clothing in her room and is going to carve an old woman, but she affectionately seeks forgiveness.
Elisha goes to Peter through the forest and, tired, falls asleep. He is awakened by the screams of a woman who is being pursued by two villains. Elisha in an invisible hat beats the villains, but they can’t understand what’s the matter: since everyone thinks that one of them started the fight, they begin to have the strength to tug each other until they are lying around without feelings. The woman is the wife of Elisha. She tells him about her adventures: after Elisha was separated from her, she went after him to Peter. Having an urgent need for money, she got a job as a worker at a brick factory with a German, but one night the owner's wife found her husband in her bed and inflamed her with such fierce hatred that she had to leave, suffering from a jealous German who was severely beaten.
Elisha’s wife got into the police, where she spent the night, and in the morning she discovered that someone had changed her clothes for men. When she was released, she went to live with a secretary who stole government money. But, fearing that he would be exposed, he decided to leave, and she again had to look for a place for herself. Elisha does not rebuke his wife for not being modest in behavior, and sends her to Yamskaya Sloboda to wait for him there.
Elisha himself remains in the forest. Here he is Silenus, who takes him to the house of a wealthy farmer from schismatics. Elisha searches for the wine cellars and enters the bathhouse, where the old farmer is steamed with his young wife. Elisha, wearing an invisible hat, is so hot in the bathhouse that the farmer and his wife run away, not understanding what is happening. And Elisha soars for pleasure, after which he comes to the chambers of the farmer and hides under his bed.
A strong thunderstorm begins, and a frightened farmer gets out of bed to light a candle and pray to God. Elisha, in his invisible hat, lays down in his place and takes possession of his sleeping wife. The farmer goes to bed and notices that something is wrong with his wife. But Elisha manages to jump out of bed. A worried farmer wakes his wife, and she tells him that in a dream she imagined that someone was reclining on her. The farmer thinks that devils are wound up in his house, and is going to call a messenger.
Elisha finds a wine cellar, knocks down locks with his fist and drinks for his pleasure. The old fortuneteller comes to the farmer and boasts in front of him: they say she is a skilled worker at various divisions and conspiracies and can easily remove the addiction to wine from any drunkard. The farmer is alarmed by her last statement, and he demands that she not wean from wine, but, on the contrary, charm people to alcohol. She refuses, and he drives her away. Elisha has been naughty all this time. It begins to seem to him that Bacchus himself and his retinue comes to help him and they inflict destruction in the cellar, after which they go to empty the cellars of other vendors.
Zeus from Olympus observes the exploits of Elisha and decides to convene the gods so that they advise him on what to do with such a daring and daring drunkard. The gods are divided, but most of them want to execute Elisha. Zeus, after hearing their opinion, announces to the congregation that he has found the right solution. He informs the gods that soon people will gather for fist fight at the “Ruka” drinking house. There, Elisha will show the wonders of the youthful retirement, after which his fate will be decided: a dashing fist fighter should make an excellent warrior.
On the appointed day, merchants with coachmen go wall to wall, and Elisha, in his invisible hat, arranges a rout in the camp of the enemy, but someone knocks him off his magic hat, grabs the bullies and puts them into soldiers.
