In the county town, from which “three years you can’t get to any state,” the city manager Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky gathers officials in order to give unpleasant news: he was notified by letter from an acquaintance that an “examiner from Petersburg is going to their city” incognito. And with a secret prescription. ” The mayor's office — two rats of unnatural magnitude dreamed all night — foresaw the evil. The reasons for the arrival of the auditor are being sought, and the judge, Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin (who has read “five or six books, and therefore somewhat freethinking”), assumes the war started by Russia. Meanwhile, the mayor advises Artemy Filippovich Zemlyanika, the trustee of charitable institutions, to put on clean caps for the sick, to order about the strength of the tobacco they smoke and in general, if possible, reduce their number; and meets the full sympathy of Strawberries, who reckons that "a person is simple: if he dies, then he will die; if he recovers, then he will recover. ” The city mayor's judge points to “domestic geese with small geese,” which snoop under the legs in the front for petitioners; to the assessor, from whom from childhood he "gives a little vodka"; on a hunting horn that hangs above the cabinet with papers. Talking about bribes (and in particular, greyhound puppies), the mayor calls on Luka Lukich Khlopov, the school superintendent, and laments for strange habits, "inseparable from his academic rank": one teacher constantly makes faces, he explains with such fervor that he does not remember himself (“It is, of course, Alexander the Great, the hero, but why break the chairs? From this loss to the treasury”).

The postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin appears, "a naive man naive." The mayor, fearing a denunciation, asks him to look at the letters, but the postmaster, having read them for a long time out of sheer curiosity (“you will read another letter with pleasure”), have not yet met anything about a Petersburg official. Out of breath, the landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky enter and, intermittently interrupting each other, talk about a visit to a hotel inn and a young man who is observant (“he looked into our plates”), with a kind of expression in his face, in a word, namely to the auditor: “and "He doesn’t pay money and doesn’t go, who would be there if he weren’t?"

The officials dispersed with concern, the mayor decides to "go to the hotel in a parade" and gives urgent orders to the quarterly relative to the street leading to the tavern, and the construction of the church at a charitable institution (not to forget that it began to "be built, but burned out, or someone will blurt out that and not built at all). The mayor with Dobchinsky leaves in great excitement, Bobchinsky cockerel runs after the shivers. Are Anna Andreevna, the wife of the mayor, and Mary Antonovna, his daughter. The first one scolds her daughter for her sluggishness and in the window asks her leaving husband whether the visitor is with a mustache and with what mustache. Frustrated by the failure, she sends Avdotya for shivering.

In a small hotel room on a gentleman's bed lies the servant Osip. He is hungry, complains about the owner, who lost money, at his thoughtless wastefulness and recalls the joys of life in St. Petersburg. Is Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, a young silly man. After a hassle, with increasing timidity, he sends Osip for dinner - and will not be given, so for the master. An explanation with a tavern servant is followed by a crappy lunch. Having emptied the plates, Khlestakov scolds, at this time the city manager inquires about him. In the dark room under the stairs where Khlestakov lodges, they meet. Sincere words about the purpose of the trip, about the formidable father who summoned Ivan Alexandrovich from St. Petersburg, are mistaken for skilful inventions, and the clerk understands his cries about not wanting to go to prison in the sense that the newcomer will not cover his misconduct. The mayor, lost in fear, offers the visitor money and asks to move to his house, as well as inspect - for the sake of curiosity - some institutions in the city, "somehow charitable and others." The newcomer unexpectedly agrees, and, having written two notes on the tavern account, Strawberry and his wife, the mayor sends Dobchinsky with them (Bobchinsky, who eagerly eavesdropped on the door, falls to the floor with her), and he goes with Khlestakov.

Anna Andreevna, impatiently and anxiously awaiting the news, is still annoyed at her daughter. Dobchinsky came running in with a note and a story about the official that “he is not a general, and will not yield to the general”, about his menacingness at first and mitigation afterwards. Anna Andreyevna reads a note where a list of pickles and caviar is interspersed with a request to prepare a room for a guest and take wine from the merchant Abdulin. The two ladies, quarreling, decide which dress to wear. The mayor and Khlestakov are returning, accompanied by Zemlyanik (who had just bitten Labardan in the hospital), Khlopov and the indispensable Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky. The conversation concerns the successes of Artemy Filippovich: since his assumption of office, all patients "recover like flies." The mayor gives a speech about his selfless zeal. The furious Khlestakov wonders if it is impossible to play cards somewhere in the city, and the mayor, understanding the trick on the issue, resolutely speaks out against the cards (not embarrassed by his recent victory against Khlopov). Completely disengaged by the appearance of the ladies, Khlestakov tells how in St. Petersburg they mistook him for the commander in chief, that he and Pushkin were on friendly footing, how he once managed the department, which was preceded by persuasion and sending thirty-five thousand couriers to him; he paints his unprecedented severity, predicts his quick work to be field marshals, thereby causing a panicky fear to the mayor with his entourage, in which all fear disperse when Khlestakov leaves to sleep. Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna, arguing who the visitor looked at more, together with the mayor, vying with each other, ask Osip about the owner. He answers so ambiguously and evasively that, assuming an important person in Khlestakov, they only affirm that. The landlord bothers the police to stand on the porch so as not to let the merchants, petitioners and anyone who could complain.

Officials in the mayor’s house are conferring what to do, they decide to give a bribe to the visitor and persuade Lyapkin-Tyapkin, glorious for his eloquence (“no word, Cicero flew off his tongue”), to be the first. Khlestakov wakes up and scares them. Having completely overtaxed Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who came in with the intention of giving money, he cannot even answer in a coherent way, how long has he been serving and what has he served; he drops money and considers himself almost arrested. Raised the money Khlestakov asks for a loan, because "on the road cost." Talking with the postmaster about the pleasures of living in a county town, offering a school clerk a cigarette and the question of who, to his taste, is preferable to brunettes or blondes, confusing Strawberries with the remark that he was shorter yesterday, he takes from everyone in turn " loan "under the same pretext. Strawberries diversify the situation, reporting to everyone and offering to state their thoughts in writing. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky immediately asked Khlestakov for a thousand rubles or at least a hundred rubles (however, he was also content with sixty-five). Dobchinsky cares about his firstborn, born before marriage, wanting to make him a legitimate son - and is encouraged. Bobchinsky asks on occasion to say in St. Petersburg to all the nobles: senators, admirals ("if the emperor will have to do this, tell the emperor too)" that "Peter Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city."

Having convinced the landowners, Khlestakov sits down for a letter to his friend Tryapichkin in St. Petersburg in order to present a funny incident, as he was mistaken for a "state man." As long as the owner writes, Osip persuades him to leave soon and has time in his arguments. Having sent Osip with a letter and behind the horses, Khlestakov receives merchants, whom the quarterly Derzhimorda loudly impedes. They complain about the "offenses" of the mayor, give the requested five hundred rubles on loan (Osip takes a sugar head and much more: "and the rope is useful on the road"). The hopeful merchants are replaced by a locksmith and a non-commissioned officer wife complaining about the same city man. The rest of the petitioners sticks out Osip. The meeting with Marya Antonovna, which, rightly, didn’t go anywhere, but only wondered if mommy was here, ends with a declaration of love, a kiss to Khlestakov who lies and repenting him on his knees. Suddenly, Anna Andreevna who appeared in anger exposes her daughter, and Khlestakov, finding her still very “appetizing,” falls to her knees and asks for her hands. He is not embarrassed by Anna Andreyevna’s confused confession that she is “somewhat married”, he offers to “retire under the canopy of jets”, because “there is no difference for love”. Suddenly, Marya Antonovna ran in and got a drag from her mother and an offer of a hand and heart from Khlestakov, who was still kneeling. A city man comes in, frightened by the complaints of merchants breaking through to Khlestakov, and begs not to believe the scammers. He does not understand his wife's words about matchmaking, as long as Khlestakov does not threaten to shoot himself. Not too understanding what is happening, the mayor blesses the young. Osip reports that the horses are ready, and Khlestakov announces to the completely lost family of the mayor that he is going for a day to a rich uncle, lends money again, gets into a carriage, accompanied by a mayor with his household. Osip carefully takes the Persian carpet on the litter.

After conducting Khlestakova, Anna Andreevna and the mayor indulge in dreams of St. Petersburg life. Appealed merchants appear, and the triumphant mayor, catching great fear on them, joyfully lets everyone go with God. One by one, “retired officials, honorary figures in the city” come, surrounded by their families, in order to congratulate the mayor's family. In the midst of congratulations, when the mayor, with Anna Andreyevna, among the guests, who are exhausted with envy, consider themselves to be the general of the couple, the postmaster runs in with the message that "the official whom we took for the auditor was not an auditor." The printed letter of Khlestakov to Tryapichkin is read aloud and sequentially, since every new reader, having reached the character of his own person, becomes blind, skids and is removed. The crushed mayor makes a diatribe not so much to the helper ashes of Khlestakov, as to the “click-burler, paper maraca”, which he will certainly insert into the comedy. There is general anger at Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who started a false rumor when the sudden appearance of a gendarme announcing that “an official who arrived by name from Petersburg requires you to come right now”, plunges everyone into a kind of tetanus. A silent scene lasts more than a minute, during which no one changes his position. "The curtain is falling."