The Bear and the Nightingale

Father Konstantin, consumed by the supposed voice of God guiding him, continues to demand absolute faith from the villagers. When a serving girl, Agafya, asks if the hard times that have come to the village are the result of the old spirits being angered, Konstantin responds with cold dogma. The voice that Konstantin believes is God encourages him to invoke its presence in his sermons, promising power and glory in exchange for his obedience.

Konstantin’s next sermon in the church warns of creeping evil and damnation. Anna screams hysterically as the icon of Christ transforms into a grinning, one-eyed figure, which Vasya recognizes as Medved. Later, Konstantin visits a distraught Anna. She questions why he let a demon into the church and begs him to give her the same attention he gave her stepdaughter. He brushes her off.

That night, while in the stable, Vasya sees Medved enter the house like smoke. Before she can reach the building, he comes back outside and taunts her, only to be stopped by a cloaked stranger. He commands Medved to leave and pulls Vasya away. She wakes in the stable to Agafya screaming about someone coming for her. Desperate to protect her home, Vasya strengthens the domovoi with offerings of bread and blood to keep Medved at bay. While Vasya’s actions ensure a fragile safety, fear spreads among the villagers, who grow suspicious of her strange ways.

Agafya dies, and Dunya dreams of Morozko again, who warns her that Vasya is in grave danger. His brother, the one-eyed Bear, has recognized Vasya and now seeks to destroy her. Morozko implores Dunya to give Vasya the protective necklace, as it is her only hope of survival.

Vasya maintains her vigil over the horses from the growing danger in the woods. Alyosha comes to get her, saying that Dunya has collapsed and fallen into delirium. Vasya cares for her old nurse, and Dunya rouses herself enough to warn Vasya about the brothers, Morozko and Medved. She finally gives Vasya the necklace. After she warns Vasya to keep the necklace a secret, the girl hears something outside. She goes to investigate.

Outside, she sees an undead woman wrapped in a burial shroud break into Konstantin’s quarters and attack him. Vasya follows, and Medved’s voice commands the creature to attack her instead. Before the creature can, Morozko arrives and, together with Vasya, commands her to leave. The creature flees into the woods. As others come to see what happened, Vasya flees back to the house.

She returns to Dunya’s side as she lies dying. Morozko appears to guide her peacefully into death, but Medved intervenes and twists her peaceful passing into one of fear and agony. Vasya watches helplessly as the shadow vanishes and Dunya dies.

After Dunya’s death, Vasya and Alyosha discover that Agafya has risen as an upyr, or vampire, and the siblings stake her in her grave. Afterward, Vasya glimpses a white horse and its rider, Morozko. Vasya’s actions lead the villagers to gossip about her being a witch. Anna openly condemns her and beats her while Irina watches.

A messenger arrives for Pyotr with news of a fire that has devastated a nearby village. Despite Vasya’s warnings of danger in the woods, Pyotr dismisses her pleas as childish tales. He departs with a small party of men, leaving Alyosha to guard the household. That night, the family hears weeping outside the house and scratching at the windows. Vasya confronts what appears to be Dunya, returned as an upyr. The creature attacks the horses, killing a colt before retreating into the forest.

Meanwhile, Medved commands Konstantin to remove Vasya from the village, blaming her for the escalating chaos. Konstantin then conspires with Anna to send Vasya to a convent immediately, using the first sledges prepared for winter.

Vasya learns that she is to be bound and sent away at dawn by Anna and Konstantin. When she protests, her stepmother mockingly offers Vasya a choice: Find snowdrops in the frozen forest by morning or go to the convent. Despite Alyosha’s pleas for her to stay, Vasya escapes into the night. The forest, however, offers no sanctuary. While pursued by Dunya’s upyr, Vasya again stumbles upon the oak where she first met Medved years prior. She is on the brink of collapse when Morozko appears and carries her to safety.

Though cold and near death, Vasya confronts Morozko and tells him that she left to find the snowdrops for her stepmother. She must also return home since the domovoi will disappear without her support, leaving her family vulnerable. Morozko, impressed by her strength, carries Vasya into a grove of fir trees.