The play charts the lives and ambitions of the well-heeled Prozorovs stranded in a provincial backwater after the death of their father, an army general. The three sisters: Olga, Masha, Irina and their brother, Andrey, were brought up in the refined and cultured environment of Moscow and long to return there as a place where they believe happiness is possible. Over four moving acts, the siblings struggle with unhappy marriages, tempestuous love affairs, unsatisfying jobs, unwanted marriage proposals and a desperate fire that ravages the town, all of which see their hope of returning to Moscow recede further out of sight.