: Hermann becomes consumed by the secret. He manipulates the Countess’s young ward, Lizaveta , to gain entry into the house at night.
: He bets his entire fortune on what he believes is the ace . However, when he flips the card, it is the Queen of Spades . To his horror, the Queen seems to wink at him, bearing the mocking face of the dead Countess.
: Hermann ignores the marriage condition and rushes to a gambling house. Night 1 : He bets on the three and wins. Night 2 : He bets on the seven and wins.
: On the night of her funeral, the Countess's ghost appears to Hermann. She reveals the secret cards: the three , the seven , and the ace , on the condition that he never plays more than one card a day and marries Lizaveta.
Everything changes when he hears a legend about an old who possesses a supernatural secret: a sequence of three cards— three, seven, and ace —that never fail to win at faro.
The tale follows , an army engineer of German descent who is cautious and frugal. Though he loves gambling, he refuses to play, fearing he might lose his small fortune.