A poor Russian shoemaker named Semyon sets off to a nearby village to buy sheepskins for a new winter coat. He and his wife are so poor that they share one coat between them, and they have been saving money for several years to buy a new one. Before Semyon can buy the skins, he needs to collect money that is owed to him by several villagers. However, his debtors, who are themselves very poor, are all unable to pay him what they owe. The sheepskin seller refuses to sell Semyon the skins on credit. Discouraged, Semyon spends the little money that he does have on vodka and stumbles home drunkenly, musing resentfully about his debtors’ selfishness.
Passing a church on the way home, Semyon notices a naked man leaned up against one side of the chapel. He isn’t sure if the man is alive or dead, and recognizes that if the man is alive, he will likely freeze to death soon. Semyon convinces himself that he has no obligation to approach or help this man, since he is already struggling to feed and clothe his own family. Moreover, he reasons, if the man is the victim of a crime, and Semyon is found at the scene “helping” him, he might get in trouble himself. Having decided not to get involved in the situation, Semyon passes the church. A few steps later, however, he suddenly feels a twinge of conscience. He turns back to the church to help the naked stranger.
Semyon is surprised to find that the man, whose name is Mikhail, appears young, strong, and uninjured. When he asks how Mikhail came to be naked and alone by the side of the church, Mikhail says he cannot explain. Semyon takes Mikhail to his home, where his wife Matryona is waiting. Matryona has been hard at work all day and is dismayed to find that Semyon has not only failed to buy the sheepskins but has also spent their precious money on vodka and brought home another mouth to feed. Matryona explodes at Semyon, lambasting him for his thoughtlessness and refusing to feed the naked stranger. However, when she looks at Mikhail’s pitiful posture, Matryona’s heart softens, and she relents, offering him their last piece of bread and a place to stay. Mikhail, who until now has seemed quiet and removed, suddenly smiles.
The next day, Semyon begins to train Mikhail as his apprentice shoemaker. Mikhail has an immediate talent for shoemaking, and his superb workmanship soon attracts many customers to Semyon’s business. One day, after several years of this newfound prosperity, a rich gentleman comes to Semyon to commission a pair of boots made out of extremely expensive leather. The gentleman, who is very rude, warns Semyon that the boots must last for a whole year and that he will punish Semyon severely if they do not meet his standards. Fearing the gentleman’s wrath, Semyon is unsure about whether to take the job; Mikhail, however, encourages him to accept it. As Semyon is taking the gentleman’s measurements, Mikhail’s face again breaks into the strange bright smile. This is the first time that Mikhail has smiled since the original day when Matryona gave him dinner.
Mikhail begins to make the boots for the gentleman. As she watches Mikhail work, Matryona notices that he seems to be making the shoes incorrectly. The gentleman commissioned sturdy winter boots, but it appears that Mikhail is sewing the leather into light slippers. Matryona holds her tongue, assuming that Mikhail knows what he is doing. But when Semyon sees Mikhail’s work, he is distressed. He doesn’t understand how Mikhail could have made such a huge mistake, and he begins to worry about the punishment that awaits them. Just then, the gentleman’s servant arrives with a message: the gentleman died the previous day on the way home from Semyon’s shop. His widow now wants the expensive leather to be made into light slippers for her husband to wear in his coffin. This is the exact kind of shoe that Mikhail has already made.
More time passes. Mikhail remains hardworking, quiet, and mysteriously solemn. One day, a woman named Marya comes to the shop to buy boots for her twin daughters, one of whom has a crippled leg. Marya tells the story of how she came to be these girls’ guardian. They are not her biological daughters, but she adopted them when they were infants after both of their parents died. Throughout Marya’s story, Mikhail behaves very strangely, staring at the young girls. When Marya and her daughters leave the shop, Semyon and Matryona notice that Mikhail is once again beaming.
When Semyon asks Mikhail why he is smiling, Mikhail says that God has forgiven him. Mikhail’s whole body has begun glowing, and Semyon and Matryona suddenly realize that Mikhail is not a human being but an angel. They ask him to explain the meaning of his three mysterious smiles, and Mikhail tells them that he had been punished by God and sent to earth to learn three lessons; each time he smiled, it was because he had learned one of the three lessons and was one step closer to returning to heaven. He was punished, Mikhail explains, because he disobeyed God: God had told him to take the soul of a woman who had just given birth to twins, but Mikhail took pity on the woman and let her stay alive to take care of her daughters. Hearing that Mikhail had disobeyed him, God made Mikhail go back to earth to take the woman’s soul, and then to stay there as a mortal until he had learned three truths: what dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what men live by.
Mikhail learned the first truth when he saw Matryona’s heart soften toward him; he realized that what dwells in man is love. He understood the second truth when the rich gentleman commissioned boots for a whole year, not knowing, meanwhile, that he would die the same day: what is not given to man is knowledge of his own death. And he understood God’s third truth when he saw the twin girls, who were the daughters of the woman he had initially tried to save. Mikhail had allowed the girls’ mother to persuade him that they would not survive without her, since children need a mother’s care. However, when he saw how well the girls had been cared for by a stranger—and witnessed the strength of Marya’s love for them—he understood the mistake he had made in believing their dying mother. He understood that what men live by is not parental love but love in general. Having learned these three truths and finished telling his story to Semyon and Matryona, Mikhail ascends into heaven in a column of fire.
