The tide of change is coming. Madam Ranyevskaya's liberal world of privilege and pleasure is beginning to show cracks, but she and her family live on in denial. Lopakhin wants to rescue Ranyevskaya. The hard-working son of one of her family's serfs, his new-found wealth can offer shelter and security to the woman he has loved since boyhood, but it will come at a high price. Meanwhile, revolution hangs in the air, the poor and hungry are pushing at the doors, and the tutor Trofimov predicts a tumultuous change for everybody.