The last day before Christmas is replaced by a clear frosty night. The sorceresses and couples had not yet come out caroling, and no one had seen smoke coming out of the chimney of one hut and a witch rising on a broomstick. She flashes a black speck in the sky, picking up stars in her sleeve, and a devil flies towards her, who "last night was left to stagger around in the white light." Having stolen the month, the devil hides him in his pocket, assuming that the darkness will keep the rich Cossack Chub invited to the clergyman of Kuta at home, and the blacksmith Vakul, who hated the devil (who painted the picture of the Last Judgment and the shameful devil on the church wall), does not dare to come to Chubov's daughter Oksana . As long as the devil builds chickens, the witches who left Chub’s hut do not dare to go to the clerk, where a pleasant society will gather for the boiled voodoo, or return home due to such darkness, and leave, leaving the beautiful Oksana dressed up in front of the mirror in the house, for which and Vakula catches her. The stern beauty makes fun of him, not at all touched by his gentle speeches. An annoyed blacksmith goes to unlock the door, which is knocked by Chub, who has lost his way and lost his godfather, having decided to return home on the occasion of the blizzard raised.However, the blacksmith's voice makes him think that he didn’t fall into his hut (but in a similar, lame Levchenko, to whose young wife the blacksmith probably came), Chub changes his voice, and the angry Vakula, pushing the bumps, expels him. The beaten Chub, having learned that the blacksmith had left his own house, goes to his mother, Solokha. Solokha, who was a witch, returned from her journey, and the devil flew in with her, dropping a month in the pipe.
It became light, the blizzard abated, and the crowds of carols poured into the streets. The girls resort to Oksana, and, noting on one of them new gold embroidered shingles, Oksana declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her the little shirts "worn by the queen." Meanwhile, the line that dissolves near Solokha is frightened off by the head, who did not go to the clerk's couture. The devil promptly crawls into one of the sacks left among the huts by a blacksmith, but the other soon has to crawl into his head, as the clerk knocks on Solokha. Praising the merits of the incomparable Solokha, the clerk is forced to climb into the third bag, since Chub is. However, Chub also climbs there, avoiding meeting with the returning Vakula. As long as Solokha is explained in the garden with the Cossack Sverbyguz, who came after him, Vakula carries away the bags thrown in the middle of the hut, and, saddened by the quarrel with Oksana, he does not notice their severity. A crowd of carollers surrounds him on the street, and here Oksana repeats her mocking condition. Throwing all but the smallest bags in the middle of the road, Vakula is running, and there are rumors behind him that he was either damaged in his mind or hanged himself.
Vakula comes to the Cossack Puzatom Patsyuk, who is said to be "a little akin to the devil." Having found the owner eating the dumplings, and then the dumplings, which Patsyuk climbed into his mouth themselves, Vakula timidly asks the way to hell, relying on his help in his misfortune. Having received a vague answer that the devil is behind him, Vakula flees from a quick dumpling climbing into his mouth. Anticipating easy prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith's neck, promises Oksana that night. The cunning blacksmith, having grabbed the line by the tail and crosses it, becomes the master of the situation and orders the line to take itself "to Luxembourg, straight to the queen".
Having found Kuznetsov’s bags about that time, the girls want to take them to Oksana to see what Vakula wore on. They go for sledges, and Chubov Kum, having called for the help of a weaver, drags one of the bags into his hut. There, for the obscure, but seductive contents of the bag, a fight occurs with the godfather. In the bag are Chub and the clerk. When Chub, having returned home, finds his head in the second bag, his disposition towards Solokha is greatly reduced.
A blacksmith, having jumped to Petersburg, comes to the Cossacks, who drove through Dikanka in the fall, and, clutching a devil in his pocket, he wants to be taken to the reception for the tsarina. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful paintings on the walls, the blacksmith faces the queen, and when she asks the Cossacks who have come to ask for their Sich, “what do you want?” The blacksmith asks her for her royal shoes. Touched by such simple-heartedness, Catherine draws attention to this passage of Fonvizin standing at a distance, and gives shoes to Vakule, having received koi, he considers it a blessing to go home.
At that time, in the village, Dikan women were arguing in the middle of the street how exactly Vakul had laid hands on himself, and the rumors that had come to confuse Oksana, she did not sleep well at night, and if she did not find the devout blacksmith in the morning, she was ready to cry. The blacksmith simply overslept in the matins and masses, and when awakened, he took out a new hat and belt from the chest and went to Chub to get married. Chub, wounded by Solokha's treachery, but seduced by gifts, answers with consent. Oksana, who had also entered, echoed, ready to marry the blacksmith “even without chereviks.” Having gotten into a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted a line, yes "so disgusting that everyone spit when they passed by."
