Publisher's Synopsis
One morning, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich awakens and decides to have a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast. This mundane event is interrupted by Yakovlevich's discovery of a nose baked into the loaf. To his horror, he recognizes the nose: it belongs to one of his regular customers, Major Kovalev. The barber tries to displace the nose on several occasions, but he never succeeds, as there is always someone who interrupts him and eventually he even gets arrested by the police after trying to drop the nose into the Neva river. On the same morning, Major Kovalev wakes up to discover his nose is missing. The spot where there once was a nose is now simply smooth skin. He becomes distraught, as he cares very much about the opinion of others and in particular pretty women. Venturing out into the city, holding a handkerchief to his face where his nose used to be, he encounters his nose in the city, dressed in a uniform implying a higher rank than Kovalev's. The nose seems to be paying social calls. Kovalev tries to talk to the nose, explaining the problem, but the nose dismisses him haughtily and takes its leave. Kovalev then attempts to place an advertisement with a newspaper about his lost nose, but he is told that the paper cannot publish advertisements for satire or curiosities such as his nose.
