In 1897, Anton Chekhov goes to dinner with his dear friend Alexei Suvorin in Moscow. At the dinner, blood begins to rush from Chekhov's mouth — the first of his hemorrhages which signal his tuberculosis. Chekhov goes to a clinic that specializes in respiratory infections, where he remains indifferent to his diagnosis. One of his visitors is Tolstoy, who loves Chekhov despite the fact that he does not like Chekhov's plays, only his short stories. When Chekhov's condition continues to worsen and he knows he will die, he goes to Badenweiler, a spa and resort city in Germany. Even though he has gone to a beautiful place to die, he still writes his mother and sister that his condition continues to improve. Before his journey to the resort, he traveled with his wife Olga to specialists in Berlin, who had only confirmed that there was nothing to be done about his condition. Chekhov loses his ability to write near the end of his life, though he does finish up the play he had begun. One night, his fever is so high that he begins to suffer hallucinations. Olga calls for the doctor, who comes to his hotel room. The doctor realizes that the man is dying and that there is nothing to be done, so he orders a bottle of champagne and three glasses, which are delivered by a young man who works at the hotel. They drink the champagne, and at around three A.M., Chekhov passes away. When the doctor begins to leave, Olga asks him not to let the word out that her husband has died just yet; she wants just a few hours with her husband before the media catches word. The next morning, the young hotel worker arrives at the door with a vase of flowers. He tells Olga about breakfast and can sense something is wrong. Olga hands the boy a tip and tells him to quietly and discreetly go to a mortician. She describes the whole scenario — how the dead body will not surprise the mortician but the name Chekhov will raise his eyebrows. Before the nervous boy goes, he picks up the champagne cork that was left on the floor the night before.