His lot is loneliness. Von Meck's moral and material support helps him live, but it is humiliating to depend on the whims of wealth. Madness envelopes the pathetic Milyukova, who becomes a slave to her vile passions. Tchaikovsky wants to get away from the abyss from which there is no return, yet he does not have the right to his own life, even if it leads to destruction. The world of cards holds a mysterious attraction.
Cards enrich and impoverish, bringing minutes of joy and suffering.
The world narrows to the size of a card table. A moment of oblivion is followed by another spin of the wheel of fortune, and the winner, as always, is the Queen of Spades. The dialogues by correspondence have ended, and Tchaikovsky sends letters of revelation to Von Meck. The soul is torn into pieces that scatter like a deck of cards. Salvation is death-a step into immortality.