A penniless young man and his wife struggle to make a living. He works part time for his miserly, penny-pinching uncle for extra money. The old man hangs his inheritance in front of him like a carrot in front of a donkey. He also says that he may give it all to his other nephew, who has a dubious reputation and no contact with the family. The young man grows desperate and irate at his brow-beating uncle and the treatment he receives from him and thinks about murder, but has never been able to act on it. But everyone has a breaking point, don’t they?