The Death of Ivan Ilyich tells the life and death of an ordinary Russian judge: the novella begins with the wake of Ivan Ilyich Golovin, a member of the Judicial Chamber, and then goes back to show how he lived, fell ill, and died at forty-five.
In the first chapter, the colleagues read the death notice and think first of the promotions the vacancy opens. Pyotr Ivanovich visits the widow, Praskovya Fyodorovna, who consults him about the pension, hears from the servant Gerasim that everyone will die, and ends the night in a game of vint.
In chapters II and III, the narrator tells the life of the dead man: the son of a high official, a graduate of the School of Jurisprudence, an examining magistrate, married for pleasantness and decorum, increasingly retreating into his work. In 1880 he gets a post paying five thousand rubles, sets up the new house, and falls from a small stepladder while hanging the curtains.
In chapters IV to VII, a pain in his side leads him to a famous doctor who treats him as he used to treat the accused. One night he understands that the case is one of life and death; his wife and the doctors pretend he is only ill, and only Gerasim, who holds his legs on his shoulders, does not lie.
In chapters VIII to XII, the family goes to the theater, he feels himself pushed into a black bag, suspects that his whole life was not that, takes communion, and screams for three days. An hour before the end he feels pity for his son and wife, wants to ask forgiveness, and says let pass, and in place of death he finds light.