It is summer 1890. To make some money and feed his family, Anton Chekhov, a modest physician, writes short stories for newspapers under the pen name Antocha Chekhonte. Important literary gures, writers and editors alike, seek him out and make him aware of his talent. His situation improves and Anton Chekhov receives the Pushkin prize, as well as Tolstoy's admiration. However when one of his brothers died of tuberculosis, Anton sees it as a personal failure and seeks to escape his fame and his loves.