Avdeev, injured, reaches Fort Vozdvizhensk's hospital. He describes the battle under Poltoratsky, where he was wounded during a wood-chopping expedition. A doctor finds a bullet lodged in his body that can't be removed. His friends Panov and Seryogin visit, and Avdeev entrusts them with a final message for his family, wishing for his brother's long life. Anticipating death, he requests a candle. Holding the candle, Avdeev soon passes away.

On the day Avdeev dies, his family in a distant village are threshing oats amidst a harsh winter. Avdeev enlisted in place of his brother, leaving behind a family grappling with the everyday realities of rural life.

As the family learns of Avdeev's death, their grief is compounded by the return of a letter and money sent to him. Their letter never reached Avdeev, who died "defending the tsar, the fatherland, and the Orthodox faith" (38). Avdeev's mother and his widow, Aksinya, each process his death in their own ways. Aksinya, unfaithful to Avdeev, faces her grief alongside relief of being freed from societal judgment, given she is pregnant by another man.