Evenings on a Farm Near Dykanka: In the remote Ukrainian village of Dykanka, handsome but poor Vakula loves the beautiful Oksana, but she's holding out for a wealthy prince, and her father doesn't think much of him either. On Christmas Eve she sends him on a ridiculous quest for dancing shoes that takes him all the way to the imperial palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the help of some odd characters from the village and the Devil himself.