The Captain's Daughter

“An old man's memoir of his youth. Pyotr Grinyov, a nobleman's son of seventeen, is sent to serve in a tiny fortress on the Orenburg steppe, falls in love with the commandant's daughter Masha, and fights a duel for her with the sly officer Shvabrin. Then the Cossack Pugachov rises in revolt, claiming to be the murdered Tsar, and takes the fortress — and Grinyov finds that the rebel is the vagabond he once gave a hareskin coat in a snowstorm. Between loyalty and gratitude, honour and love, he must rescue Masha; and in the end it is Masha who must rescue him.”