The Cherry Orchard

In Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Lyubov Ranevskay has just returned to her rural Russian estate after being abandoned and swindled by her lover in Paris. She is reunited with her borther, Gayev, her daughters Anya and Varya, as well as various servants, in the house of her birth. While flooded with memories of her life in this home and the surrounding orchard, she is crudely reminded by Lopakhin, a one time peasant who is now a wealthy businessman, that the orchard will have to be auctioned off to make the mortgage payments. Lyubov finds this idea preposterous, and continues to fritter away the little savings she has.