Arkady Kirsanov has just graduated from the University of Petersburg and returns with a friend, Bazarov, to his father''s modest estate in an outlying province of Russia. His father, Nikolai, gladly receives the two young men at his estate, called Maryino, but Nikolai''s brother, Pavel, soon becomes upset by the strange new philosophy called "nihilism" which the young men, especially Bazarov, advocate. Nikolai, initially delighted to have his son return home, slowly begins to feel uneasy, and a certain awkwardness in his regard, as it emerges that Arkady''s views, much influenced by Bazarov, are radical and make his own beliefs feel dated
