The Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov wakes one morning to discover that his nose has disappeared. Unbeknownst to him, it has mysteriously found its way into a loaf of bread on the barber Yokovlevich's breakfast table. The barber attempts to dispose of it, but when Kovalyov steps out onto the St Petersburg streets, he finds his nose, now the size of a human, wearing a gold-embroidered uniform and travelling around in a carriage.