The action of the novel takes place in Paris and tells the story of the life of several heroes for twenty years.

1

Night. Gervaise’s young woman in her miserable room is waiting for Lantier’s roommate. She is slim, "with delicate features, already battered by a harsh life." Gervesa limps on one leg. Two sons sleep in the room: eight-year-old Claude and four-year-old Etienne. Lantier returns in the morning, talking to her very rudely. He takes the clothes of Gervaisa to receive money for it. Later, when he arrived at the laundry, Gervèze found out that Lantier left home: he left with Adele in a beautiful fiacre, which he hired for the money received for Gervaisa’s clothes.

In the laundry room is Virginie, whom Gervaise saw with Adele. In a hysteria, Gervaise rushes at her: a fight ensues between two women.

The scene of the fight is described very naturally, replicas of the heroines - selected Parisian abuse. No one takes apart the girls: "the laundry was enjoying." Finally, Gervaise pulls up Virginie's skirt, rips off her trousers and pounds her buttocks with a roll for knocking out clothes. The defeated Virginie, sobbing, leaves.

2

"Trap" is a zucchini where many heroes of the novel drink and spend time.

It was there that roofer Coupeau confesses his tender feelings for Gervaise and makes her an offer.

They go to visit his sister with her husband (Lorilla), who lives with her mother (Ms. Cupo). Mr. Lorille - chain craftsman, makes jewelry from gold. Ms. Lorille, a naughty, envious woman, immediately disliked Gervaise.

3

Wedding of Zherveza and Kupo.

The invitees are people who are constantly gossiping, scolding, envious. Ms. Lorille gives Gervaise the nickname: “Lame”.

The guests get drunk. And one of the guests, the drunk Uncle Bazuzh, begins to rant: "When a person has died ... this is for a long time."

4

Four years of life Gervaise and Cupo passed in hard work. Gervaise gave birth to a daughter. The birth scene is described very naturally: Zherveza gives birth without stopping her usual activities - after all, she needs to work and cook her husband’s food: “Cutlets were already in the pan when the fights started again. Tears hailed from her eyes, but she continued to stomp around the stove; turned the roast. Well, from what she gives birth? This does not mean that you need to leave Coupo without lunch! But she barely had time to put a bottle of wine; she didn’t have enough strength to get to the bed - she fell to the floor and gave birth right there, right on the mat. ”

Cupo is very caring for Gervaise and the little daughter, who was named Nana.

The second apartment upstairs was occupied by two tenants - mother and son Gouguer. Mother worked on lace repair, and her son, a blacksmith, worked at a nail factory.

The savings of the four Coupes reached six hundred francs. Since that time, Gervaise has lost her peace. She was possessed by an ambitious dream - to open her own laundry room and hire female workers herself.

But while her dreams are not destined to come true. While working, Cupo falls from the roof: "His body described a light curve, turned over twice in the air and with a thud, like a knot of linen thrown from a height, collapsed in the middle of the street." Cupo at death. Gervaise spends all his savings on his treatment. Envious Lorilla are happy with this scenario.

However, Goucher, secretly in love with Gervaise, offers her to borrow money from him - 500 francs, and open a laundry room. Gouger himself put them off for the wedding, as his mother desired.

5

Gervaise opened the laundry room and hired female workers: the curved Augustine and the lanky Clemence. Lorilla finally quarreled with Gervaise. Ms. Lorille openly accused Gervaise of having an affair with Gouges. Gervaise became even more beautiful and happy: her dreams came true.

And Cupo often began to get drunk, pestering the laundresses. However, Gervaise forgave him.

6

Gérvezé’s son Etienne works as an apprentice at Gouges in the forge, Gervaise sometimes comes to bring them underwear and admires how Gouges works.

Once on the stairs, Gervaise once met Virginia, and a conversation ensued between them, which became the beginning of a bosom friendship. Virginie said that Lantier abandoned Adele and he has nowhere to live.

7

June 19 is the birthday of Gervaisa. All guests are assembled, not only Cupo - he drinks in the "Trap". A little later, he, drunk, comes home in an embrace with Lantier.

8

Coupo offers Lantier to live with them. Lantier settles in and begins to behave very freely with Gervaisa. Once, during one of the harassment of Lantier, Gougerza and Gherveza caught them: he decided that Gervaise was sleeping with Lantier. But Gervaise dissuades him: she would never begin to do so. Gouger offers her to leave for Belgium, to which Gervaise rejects. Yes, she loves him. But she has a husband, children, laundry.

One night, Gervaise returned with Lantier and saw that the whole room was in the vomit of the drunken Cupo. At this moment, Lantier began to harass Gervaise, she agreed: "Coupe is to blame." This scene is watched with curiosity by the little daughter of Gervaisa - Nana.

9

Soon the whole quarter found out that Gervaise went to Lantier every night. “At first, she felt like a criminal, disgusted with herself, it seemed to her that she plunged into the mud. Leaving Lantier’s room, she almost rubbed her shoulders with blood, as if wishing to wash away this dirt. She would like, changing men, to change skin. But little by little Gervaise got used to it. It was too tiring to wash every time. ” Gervaise gradually began to throw laundry, began to work worse.

The old woman Coupo told Gouguer about what is going on between Gervaise and Lantier. Worse sick from grief. Gervaise came to bring them lingerie - Gouguer asked her to leave. "Gervesa returned to the laundry stupidly, without a single thought, - so the cows return to their stall."

After some time, the laundry went bankrupt, and Cupo flourished among this bankruptcy. "Positive, this damned drunkard was only getting fat from vodka." Together Cupo and Lantier often beat Gervaise. She was already accustomed to "in the end, she reconciled, she realized that they simply enjoyed to beat her, and meekly exposed her fat back to blows."

Kupo's mother died, in front of little Nana. All the same people come to the funeral - vicious, envious gossips and hypocrites.

Gouger comes to the funeral. He tells Gervaise that she can always count on him.

Spouses Kupo moved into a miserable closet, because money was becoming less and less.

10

A neighbor of the Coupo spouses, Bijar, killed his wife with a kick in the stomach. Now he regularly beats his eight-year-old daughter Lali. “Meanwhile, the trap“ Trap ”began its destructive work in the Kupo family. The washerwoman had already foreseen the day when her husband, like Bijar, would take up the whip and make her “dance”. ” Gervaise gradually “falls”, begins to drink hard.

11

Cupo is very cruel to his daughter Nana. Beats her, suspects that she went to the panel. In fact, Nana is just a yoke, likes to dress beautifully and look good. She is 15 years old, and she already looks like a real woman. “With all of her being, Nana longed to“ spin and spin, ”as Papo Coupo said.”

An old man begins to run after Nana; and one day, when a girl received another portion of abuse from drunken parents, she leaves home.

Soon Lantier says that he saw her, well-dressed, walking arm in arm with the old man.

After some time, Cupo and Gervaise saw Nan in the square, caught her, beat her and took her home. “In the end, the parents had to come to terms with Nan. Let it come or not, as it wants, if only it would close the door behind itself. What to do, the habit is stronger than anything, even decency! ”

Once Gervaisa scolded the girl, to which she replied: “I have often seen how you walked in one shirt and stockings! Leave me alone, it was not necessary to set an example! ”

12

Eight-year-old neighbor Lali dies from the exhaustion and beatings of her father.

For Zherveza and Kupo, it is time to pay the rent. Gervaise is in debt and is starving, Cupo is drinking. From hunger, Gervaise goes to the panel, where he accidentally meets Gouguer. He brings her home, to the room of the deceased mother, and feeds her. Gouger still loves her. And she loves him, but leaves. “She recalled her old dream: to work calmly, always have bread, sleep in a clean room, raise her children well, not know the beatings, die in her bed.

Now she did not work, she was starving, slept in the mud, her daughter went on her hands, her husband beat her like.

All that remained was to die on the pavement, and if she had found the courage to jump out of the window, that would happen now. ”

13

Cupo at Zapadne got drunk and died. From that day, Gervaise began to be often forgotten.

“So Gervaise held out for several months. She sank lower, endured the last humiliation and every day gradually died of hunger. No one knew why she died. The truth was that she died from poverty, from dirt and fatigue, from an unbearable life. One morning, a foul smell spread in the corridor, and the neighbors remembered that for two days Gervaisa had not been seen; when they entered her closet, she was already decomposing. "

Uncle Bazuzh buries Zhervezu with the words: “Listen ... It's me, Cheerful Bibi, nicknamed I will give Consolation ... Happy you! Bye-bye, beautiful! ”