Mkrtich Armen's story depicts the selfless adoration of prisoner Harutyunyan for Tatyana Shirina, who, against the bleak camp landscape, symbolizes lost beauty and freedom. Harutyunyan pleads with the woman to leave the camp because she is "not of this world," establishing a silent, respectful bond between them. However, when Tatyana offers him a large, secret piece of bread out of pity, Harutyunyan rejects it in despair, feeling that her material offering diminished his pure spiritual worship to mere animal hunger.