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Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov wakes up to discover that his nose is missing from his face, and that a smooth, flat space is all that’s left in its place. Shocked, he immediately rushes out of the house to find the Head of Police. The narrator then reappears to give the reader relevant information about Kovalyov’s personality. They make a wry comment about how one cannot make a single negative remark about any individual collegiate assessor, because all collegiate assessors and even other government officials will take it quite personally. Kovalyov has held the rank of collegiate assessor for two years and is exceedingly proud of it. He calls himself “Major,” which is the same level of rank for those in the military as collegiate assessors are in the government. Kovalyov, however, is notably not in the military and is not a major, but he likes using the title because it makes him seem even more important. He even tells random beautiful women on the street the directions to his house and instructs them to ask for Major Kovalyov in the hopes that his rank will impress them enough to elicit sexual favors. Kovalyov is described as a very clean and well-dressed man whose two life goals are to be hired as a vice governor and marry a wealthy woman. The narrator remarks that, in light of these facts, the reader should now understand why Kovalyov’s lack of nose was so distressing to him. 

As Kovalyov searches for the police, covering his face with a handkerchief, he sees his nose dressed up like a gentleman in a gold-braided uniform and sword getting into a carriage. He follows his nose to the Kazan Cathedral and decides to approach it while it’s praying. Kovalyov realizes that his nose’s clothes suggest that the nose is a state councilor, a rank three levels higher than Kovalyov’s. He addresses his nose politely as one does a superior, attempting to tell his nose that it shouldn’t have run off and that he needs it back. He says that it’s fine for a peasant woman on the street to live without a nose, but an important man with important connections such as himself can’t be expected to get on without one. Kovalyov’s nose, however, is unconvinced, remarking on the fact that it outranks Kovalyov.

Kovalyov is momentarily distracted by the appearance of a beautiful girl in church, and he becomes upset because he realizes he cannot speak to or attract her without his nose. Meanwhile, his nose has escaped. Kovalyov decides to put an ad in the local newspaper so that others might know to keep an eye out for his nose. The clerk at the newspaper office, however, is uncertain about publishing the ad, because they had recently published an ad for a man whose black poodle ran away. However, the poodle turned out to be a satirical joke about a government cashier, and the newspaper was sued for libel. Kovalyov insists that his ad isn’t satirical, but, while the clerk has pity for him, he doesn’t see how the advertisement would help Kovalyov. In sympathy, the clerk offers Kovalyov snuff, a tobacco product that is inhaled through the nose, which further incenses Kovalyov, as he obviously has no nose to inhale the snuff.

After also failing to make his case to the Inspector of Police, Kovalyov returns home and mopes over the loss of his nose. He exclaims that losing a limb or ears wouldn’t be so bad as losing a nose. He ponders over who might be responsible for this loss, and believes it to be Mrs. Podtochina, whose daughter Kovalyov refuses to marry. He intends to sue her for damages. Just then, the police officer who observed Ivan throw Kovalyov’s nose off the bridge arrives at Kovalyov’s house. He has found the nose, which was caught attempting to flee the country. He returns the nose, wrapped in a piece of paper, to Kovalyov. The problem still remains of fixing the nose back onto his face. A local doctor advises Kovalyov against sewing it back on and encourages Kovalyov to let nature take its course. Kovalyov writes a letter to Mrs. Podtochina, accusing her of cursing him, but she responds with surprise, convincing him that she is not the culprit. In the meantime, Kovalyov’s nose becomes an urban legend in St. Petersburg, with tourist scams popping up around the city that claim to help onlookers see and learn about the mysterious nose. At this point, the story again becomes enveloped in mist.

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