The Overcoat recap

Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is an impoverished Saint Petersburg clerk devoted to copying documents and ignored or mocked by his colleagues. When his old cloak can no longer be repaired, he makes severe economies to commission a new overcoat from the tailor Petrovich. The garment briefly transforms how others treat him, and coworkers celebrate it at a party, but thieves seize it on his walk home. Police efforts lead nowhere. A senior official concerned with displaying his rank angrily dismisses Akaky's plea for help. Akaky falls ill after the encounter and dies, almost unnoticed by his department. Soon a ghost said to be the dead clerk begins stealing coats throughout the city. It finally confronts the important person and takes his overcoat, after which that official behaves less harshly and sightings of Akaky's apparition stop.

Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin holds a minor post in a Saint Petersburg department and finds contentment in copying official papers. His coworkers make him a target of jokes, but he rarely protests. Winter exposes the failure of his worn cloak. The tailor Petrovich refuses to patch it again, forcing Akaky to save for a new overcoat by cutting his already meager expenses. The finished garment brings warmth, pride, and sudden attention from colleagues, who draw him to an evening party in its honor. On the way home, robbers take it from him. Neither a watchman nor the police restore it. Through a colleague, Akaky reaches a high-ranking official, but the man uses the interview to demonstrate his authority and frightens Akaky away. Akaky becomes gravely ill and dies soon afterward, with little notice at work. A coat-stealing ghost then troubles the city. The important person, belatedly remorseful, encounters the apparition and loses his own fine overcoat to it. His conduct toward subordinates softens, and the ghost identified with Akaky is no longer seen.

After the important person humiliates him, Akaky becomes feverish and dies. His death barely disturbs the department, which soon fills his position. Reports then spread of a dead clerk haunting Saint Petersburg and tearing overcoats from passersby. The important person feels some remorse and decides to inquire after Akaky, only to learn that he is dead. Later, while traveling to an evening engagement, the official is confronted by the apparition, which recognizes him and takes his expensive coat. The shock makes the official more restrained with his subordinates. Sightings of the small clerk-like ghost cease after it has obtained that coat, though a larger and more threatening apparition is subsequently reported elsewhere in the city, leaving the supernatural explanation deliberately unsettled.