A middle-aged, autocratic secondary-school teacher endures decades of mockery and cultivates a petty, punitive authority over pupils and colleagues. When a public humiliation escalates his resentment, he grows obsessed first with revenge and then with a relationship that conflicts with his rigid moral worldview. His attempts to control and punish others gradually unravel into self-destructive obsession and social disintegration. The narrative traces the teacher’s downfall while satirizing moral hypocrisy, the corrosive effects of pride, and the fragility of institutional respectability.