One morning, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich awakens and decides to have a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast. This mundane event is interrupted by Yakovlevich's discovery of a nose baked into the loaf. To his horror, he recognizes the nose: it belongs to one of his regular customers, Major Kovalev. The barber tries to displace the nose on several occasions, but he never succeeds, as there is always someone who interrupts him and eventually he even gets arrested by the police after trying to drop the nose into the Neva river.
On the same morning, Major Kovalev wakes up to discover his nose is missing. The spot where there once was a nose is now simply smooth skin. He becomes distraught, as he cares very much about the opinion of others and in particular pretty women. Venturing out into the city, holding a handkerchief to his face where his nose used to be, he encounters his nose in the city, dressed in a uniform implying a higher rank than Kovalev’s. The nose seems to be paying social calls. Kovalev tries to talk to the nose, explaining the problem, but the nose dismisses him haughtily and takes its leave. Kovalev then attempts to place an advertisement with a newspaper about his lost nose, but he is told that the paper cannot publish advertisements for satire or curiosities such as his nose.
Later that day, Kovalev returns to his apartment, and a police officer knocks on his door. It is the same officer who arrested the barber earlier that morning, and he has arrived to return Kovalev's nose. Kovalev is thrilled until he discovers he has no way of attaching the nose back to his face. Consequently, he calls on the doctor, who suggests that he do nothing; that it will be worse to reattach the nose than to live without it. The following day, the Major sends a letter to a widow, who wishes him to marry her daughter, accusing her of cursing him because he was inattentive to her daughter. She replies quickly, confused by his allegations, and he concludes she is innocent.
One morning, Kovalev wakes to find his nose back on face, as if it had never left. Ivan the barber arrives to shave him, and nervously begins the job. It proceeds without a hiccup, and Kovalev continues on with his usual affairs. He is more cheerful than ever.
