The chapter opens with a foreboding update about Count Kirill Bezukhov. As the Rostov affair was in full swing, the Count suffered his sixth stroke, which places him near death. His team of doctors thought it would be a matter of hours. Local undertakers were outside his estate, hiding and waiting to be paged while some of the elite of Moscow society marched in and out. Dr. Lorrain, the lead physician, was conspicuously seated under a portrait of Catherine the Great. Catherine died in 1796 to the Count's fictional lifespan was intertwined with Catherine's. The ultimate question, is what will happen to the Count’s vast estate and there are discussions of that in the sizable crowd.

Vassily Kuragin was motivated to preserve his interests. He walked to the quarters of one of the nieces of Count Bezukhov, Katerina “Katishe” Mamontova. She is the eldest of the Count's three nieces who are called "princesses." He starts very gently, mentioning the difficult time and that he loves Katerina and her sisters like daughters. He eventually gets to the point: that his wife and the princesses would be expected to inherit by law and they have to “think about the future.” Vassily notes the problem they face, namely that even in extreme sickness, the Count pointed to Pierre’s portrait in an effort to summon his favorite son.

Importantly, during the previous winter, the Count drafted critical testamentary instruments indicating that Pierre was to be made legitimate. In effect this would make him sole heir and Pierre is stationed to become the new Count Bezukhov.

Katerina says that this can’t be since Pierre is illegitimate. She can’t focus on what is being presented. Vassily has to get her to listen and wants to strategize. He does his best to convince her that the Count gave his vast interests to Pierre in a moment of delirium and that is not what the Count would have wanted. He suggests it is up to them to rectify this grave error. It is blatant scheming but he wants to convince Katerina that they both have good intensions.

Vassily then reveals that while Count Bezukhov wrote to the letter to Emperor Alexander, asking Pierre be made legitimate, the material was never dispatched. Vassily is trying to see if Katerina knows if such material may have been destroyed or if she knows whether the letters are in a position to be retrieved and destroyed. Katerina comes around in an unexpected way. She realizes that in this world one must be vulgar and base to get ahead and that is what she is willing to do so. Still, Vassily tries to convince her of their honorable intentions. She reveals the documents are in the inlaid portfolio underneath the Count's pillow.