Conradin is ten years old. His parents are dead, he lives with an aunt who dislikes him. He lives a dull life, enriched by his imagination. At the bottom of the garden of his aunt’s house, there is a shed, in which Conradin secretly keeps two animals – a chicken, and in a large box, a ferret. Conradin calls the ferret Sredni Vashtar and it becomes his god.