In the hospital room number 6 of a hospital in the Russian province lives the official Ivan Dmitric Gromov. He is allegedly suffering from paranoia, which is why he is placed here in the psychiatric ward. The chief physician of the hospital, Dr. Andrej Efimyc Ragin, personally admitted him. By chance, he engages in conversation with Gromov and discovers in him the only reasonable conversation partner in the entire provincial backwater. The discussions about God and the world become more frequent. Rumors begin to circulate about Dr. Ragin due to his frequent visits to room number 6; he also increasingly feels watched, eavesdropped on, and pursued...