Chekhov's play, adapted for television by John Elliot. Platanov was a distinguished academic, now a village schoolteacher married to the simple but cheerful and loving Sasha. Platanov is a witty if temperamental guest, sought after at the dinner parties of Anna, a general's widow, who lives on her estate, deeply in debt, flirting with him. To the season's first dinner, Anna's aged stepson brings his new wife, Sofia, whom Platanov knew when he was a professor.