Narrated as an intimate confession between a painter and a former sailor in a Parisian café, the story centers on the painter's recollection of a turbulent love affair in Odesa with Galya Ganskaya. Galya, a mesmerizingly beautiful and passionately impulsive young woman, becomes the painter's "most beautiful memory and his heaviest sin". The narrative contrasts Galya's initial innocence with the tragic, impulsive depth of her feeling. The climax occurs when the painter, seeking freedom, declares his intention to leave for Italy. In an act of devastating emotional finality, Galya commits suicide using a swift-acting poison from her eccentric artist-father's collection. The story explores themes of youthful passion, male negligence, and the profound, irreversible consequence of an impulsive decision.