In the novel, two entrepreneurs face each other: Iván Berend, the head of a small mining operation in Bondavölgy, and Félix Kaulmann's joint-stock company. Kaulmann tries with all his might - especially with the help of Abbot Sámuel - to acquire Berend's plant and the surrounding large estate, the property of the Bondaváry counts. Berend - no matter how excellent qualities and great intelligence he possesses, and no matter how exemplary he leads the small factory - would soon fail in the unequal competition, if not for the help of a romantic coincidence. At the beginning of the plot, Félix Kaulmann lures the beautiful working girl, Evila, to Vienna. Her fiancé, Péter Szaffrán - who is also one of Berend's workers - blows up the company's warehouses in revenge. Kaulmann's business collapses, and the burning layer of coal can only be extinguished with the epoch-making invention of Iván Berend. The conclusion is preceded by a number of romantic twists: scenes taken from social life in Pest, moments of Iván Berend's social successes, the story of the Bondaváry counts, the development of Evila's fate, the actions of Kaulmann Félix and Abbot Sámuel's efforts to acquire wealth.

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