Funny yet heartbreaking, The Cherry Orchard is seen by many as Chekhov's finest play. Written in 1904, the bittersweet and haunting comedy chronicles the decline of the Russian aristocracy at the turn of the 20th century through the story of one family's futile attempt to save their beloved family estate along with its famed cherry orchard. Chekhov's story of the loss of a way of life, that of the leisurely landed gentry bolstered by serf labor, offers obvious parallels to the life of the social aristocracy in the Southern U.S. with its underpinnings of slavery.