In this short story, a land owner named Vasily Andreyevich Brekhunov takes one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey by sleigh.
They find Vasily Andreyevich and the horse dead but Nikita is still alive..
In the morning, peasants dig out the sleigh, which was only half a mile from town.
The Master then lies on top of the peasant to keep him warm through the cold night.
The Master attains a spiritual/moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others.
He wanders through the snow in circles and eventually falls off the horse, finding himself back by Nikita and the sleigh.
Vasily Andreyevich decides to leave Nikita to die and sets out on his own on the horse.
Nikita, who is not as warmly dressed as Vasily Andreyevich, soon finds himself about to die from hypothermia.
The men lose the road and the horse gets tired out, so they decide to try to sleep out the night and find their way in the morning.
Vasily Andreyevich decides they must set back out.
They eventually find themselves in a town and stop to rest.
Due to snow, they find themselves losing the road and getting lost.
The two men find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master, in his avarice, wishes to press on.
He is impatient and wishes to get there more quickly before other contenders can get there.
They are traveling to visit another landowner so that Vasily Andreyevivh can purchase a forest.
In this short story, a land owner named Vasily Andreyevich Brekhunov takes one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey by sleigh
