After the tram crash that decapitates Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev (the Homeless poet) remains on a bench, unable to stand, his legs paralyzed. He hears two women arguing about “Annushka” – a woman who spilled sunflower oil and caused a slip – and the word lodges in his mind, linking it to Pontius Pilate and then to Professor W., the strange foreign scholar who had predicted Berlioz’s death. Convinced the professor orchestrated the murder, Ivan forces himself up and returns to the spot where the professor is still present on Bronnaya. He confronts the professor, demanding his identity; the professor answers in broken Russian, denying comprehension, while the ex‑choirmaster (the former choirmaster turned “citizen” in checkered trousers) interjects and accuses Ivan of harassment. A chaotic struggle ensues: Ivan tries to detain the professor, the choirmaster shouts “Help!” but offers no real assistance, and the three flee together down Patriarch’s Lane, then Spiridonovka, and onward through Nikitsky Gate, Arbat Square, and a series of narrow lanes (Kropotkin, Ostozhenka, etc.). A massive black cat, walking on its hind legs, joins the fleeing trio, hops onto a tram, is expelled, and cleverly rides the rear coupling of the last tram, stealing a ten‑kopeck piece. The cat’s antics distract Ivan, allowing the professor to evade capture.

The chase continues through the bustling Arbat Square and into a deserted lane where Ivan falls and injures his knee. He finally loses the professor near Ostozhenka. Remembering a clue that the professor hides at house 13, apartment 47, Ivan bursts into the building, climbs to the second floor, and rings the apartment. A small girl answers and disappears. Inside the grim hallway Ivan sees a bicycle, a trunk, a winter hat, and hears a male voice reciting verses from a radio. He locates the bathroom, finds it dimly lit by a boiler, and encounters a naked woman scrubbing a bathtub, who calls him “Kiriushka” and warns that “Fyodor Ivanych” will return. Mistaking her for a threat, Ivan flees, wanders the dark apartment, discovers a dusty icon with two wedding candles and a paper cut‑out, takes the candle and the paper icon, and leaves through the back door.

Ivan runs to the Moscow River amphitheatre, meets a bearded man smoking a cigarette who guards a pile of his clothes. Ivan dives into the frigid river, struggles to surface, and climbs out onto the granite steps. The bearded man and his clothes have vanished; only a torn Tolstoy blouse, striped drawers, the candle, the icon, and a box of matches remain. Ivan fashions makeshift trousers from the striped drawers, pockets the candle, the icon, and the matches, and decides to head for Griboedov’s, avoiding the crowded main streets. He moves through back lanes, evading inquisitive passersby while the opera “Evgeny Onegin” blares from every window, and continues toward the Arbat’s hidden network of alleys, determined to reach Griboedov’s despite his disheveled appearance.