Overview: The engineer Karl Hartmann invents a new, gigantic brown coal excavator. He discovers that there are large deposits below his home country and decides to use the excavator there.
Overview: The central character of the play, Fedor Protasov, is tormented by the belief that his wife Liza has never really chosen between him and the more conventional Victor Karenin, a rival for her hand. He wants to kill himself, but doesn't have the nerve. Running away from his life, he first falls in with Gypsies, and into a sexual relationship with a Gypsy singer, Masha.
