: In the 40s of the XIX century, the narrator met in Sorrento, and then in Russia, a beautiful stranger. Finally speaking to her, he finds out the secret of the woman, but her name remains unknown to him.

The narration is conducted in the first person.

In the summer, the narrator often goes hunting in the village of Glinnoye, which lies twenty miles from his village. Near Glinny there is also a manor, consisting of an uninhabited manor house, a small outbuilding and a garden. The decrepit old man Lukyanich lives in the outhouse. From him, the narrator learns that the estate belongs to the granddaughter of the old master, Lukyanich, a widow. She and her younger sister live in a city abroad, and do not show up home.

One late in the evening, returning from a hunt, the narrator notices that the windows of the house in the estate are lit, and he hears a woman's voice. Both the song and the voice were familiar to him: he had already heard this performance two years ago in Italy, in Sorrento.

The narrator returned home along the fence, over which a small pavilion was built. A female voice came from him, singing an unfamiliar song. “There was something inviting in his sounds, before that he himself seemed to be imbued with a passionate and joyful expectation expressed by the words of the song”, that the narrator stopped, raised his head and saw a slender woman in a white dress. She held out her hands to him and asked in Italian: "Is that you?" The man was bewildered, but the stranger suddenly moved away from the window. He felt that he would never forget her voice, large dark eyes, a flexible camp and half-opened black hair. While he, stunned, stood at the pavilion, a man entered.

And now, in one of the most remote corners of Russia, the narrator, as if in a dream, hears the same voice. Here the song ends, the window dissolves, and a woman appears who he immediately recognizes. This is his sorrent stranger.

Once, while hunting in the vicinity of Glinny, the narrator sees a rider on a black horse. It seems to him that this is a man who then entered the pavilion in Sorrento. In the village, from two peasants, the narrator learns that the estate belongs to major widow Anna Fedorovna Shlykova. Her sister's name is Pelageya Fedorovna, both of them are rich in years. To pass the time before visiting the estate, the narrator decides to hunt in the forest. Suddenly, on the road passing through the forest, he sees "his" beauty and a man riding a horse. She is very good, her companion is a handsome man with a non-Russian face.

Lukyanich tells the storyteller that the lady and her sister have left for Moscow. A month later, he himself leaves the village. For the next four years, the narrator never has to go to Glynnoye. A man moves to St. Petersburg. Once, at a masquerade in a Noble Assembly, he sees a woman in a black domino and recognizes her as a stranger. He frankly tells her about the meeting in Sorrento and in Russia, about his futile attempts to find her. After listening to the narrator, the stranger says that she is Russian, although she has been to Russia a little. With Anna Fyodorovna, she lived under the name of her sister to see her beloved secretly - he was not free. When these obstacles disappeared, her lover left her.

Following her gaze, the narrator sees this man in a masquerade. He leads the arm of another woman. Having caught up with them, the man suddenly raises his head, recognizes her eyes, squints and smiles boldly. The stranger looks after the departing couple and rushes to the door. The narrator does not pursue her and returns home. Since then, he no longer met this woman. Knowing the name of her lover, the narrator can find out who she is, but does not want it: "This woman appeared to me as a dream - and as a dream she passed by and disappeared forever."