Nikolai Sheremetyev (the story of his maid)

After a long and grueling military campaign, Count Nikolai Sheremetyev returns to his homeland. In snowy 19th-century Moscow, not only honors await him, but also a cruel condition from his late mother: marry within a year or lose his enormous inheritance forever. The Count is cold, cynical, and disbelieves in love, and his house quickly fills with a crowd of noble brides eager for money and titles. Meanwhile, fate brings him face to face with Anna Averina, the proud daughter of an impoverished nobleman who gambled away the family's last estate. To save her family from shame and poverty, Anna comes to Sheremetyev to beg for mercy. But instead of pity, the principled Count offers her a cruel deal: he will forgive her father's debt if Anna becomes a powerless servant at his estate for exactly one year. From that moment on, a dangerous game begins between the domineering master and his new, unruly maid, where hatred and love are but a single step.

After a long and grueling military campaign, Count Nikolai Sheremetyev returns to his homeland. In snowy 19th-century Moscow, not only honors await him, but also a cruel condition from his late mother: marry within a year or lose his enormous inheritance forever. The Count is cold, cynical, and disbelieves in love, and his house quickly fills with a crowd of noble brides eager for money and titles. Meanwhile, fate brings him face to face with Anna Averina, the proud daughter of an impoverished nobleman who gambled away the family's last estate. To save her family from shame and poverty, Anna comes to Sheremetyev to beg for mercy. But instead of pity, the principled Count offers her a cruel deal: he will forgive her father's debt if Anna becomes a powerless servant at his estate for exactly one year. From that moment on, a dangerous game begins between the domineering master and his new, unruly maid, where hatred and love are but a single step.