The dacha season is drawing to a close, and little Luzhin's family is preparing to return to St. Petersburg, where a new world awaits the young hero—his first year of school. This prospect frightens him so much that he decides to run away and hides in a dilapidated house lost in the woods, where he finds a cracked chessboard in the attic. This object, still unknown and unfamiliar, will soon become the foundation of his world. Luzhin will graduate from school and become a promising grandmaster. But chess, a hobby, becomes a passion, and then an obsession. Gradually, Luzhin begins to view life itself as a chess game, in which the main thing is to build an impenetrable defense.