The simple plot follows a narrator, whose name the reader does not learn, through the afternoon and evening of his assignment as a Propaganda Officer to a Cossack Division of the Red Army. The story takes place during the civil war which began in Russia in 1918. The narrator's job is to spread Leninism throughout the Russian division at the Polish border. The story opens with the introduction of the narrator to Commander Savitsky, a man of significant military power. The narrator, small and bespectacled, finds himself transfixed by Savitsky's commanding physique, from his long legs to his chest and even his perfumed scent. While signing a document ordering destruction of the enemy, Savitsky strikes his riding whip on his desk and smiles at the narrator. He commences to grill the narrator on his background, and, upon learning that the narrator is educated, mocks him, calling him...