Anselm Eibenschütz is transferred to the remote small town of Zlotograd on the Austro-Hungarian border with Russia after his military service as a forestry officer. There, the unstoppable decline of the initially incorruptible official begins. To escape his unhappy marriage, he falls in love with the beautiful Euphermia, but she quickly leaves him for a former lover. Eibenschütz starts neglecting his official duties, drinks more and more, and eventually becomes embroiled in a bitter dispute with the fishmonger Jadlowker.