Ivan Turgenev's novel "The Day Before" (1859) is a subtle story about love, freedom and the search for meaning on the threshold of impending changes in Russia. The main character is a twenty—year-old noblewoman Elena Stakhova, an intelligent, honest and sympathetic girl who strives for more than small talk and everyday life at her parents' home. Her heart yearns for true love, but neither the sculptor Pavel Shubin nor the candidate of Moscow University Andrey Bersenev evoke a response in her. Everything changes with the advent of Bulgarian revolutionary Dmitry Insarov, passionate, mysterious, and obsessed with the idea of liberating his people.