Scene one.
In the garden of widow Larin’s house.
Tatjana and Ol’ga dance in company with young lady friends, whilst playing a game in which she who looks at herself in the mirror is supposed to glimpse the face of her beloved. For the merry Ol’ga, the superstition comes true. The mirror reflects the face of her fiancé, the poet Lenskij. The shy Tatjana, Ol’ga’s sister, sees in it the face of Onegin, who is visiting from St. Petersburg and has been brought by his friend Lenskij to the house of the widow Larin. Tatjana instantly falls in love with the young Onegin, the bored heir to rich possessions who boasts to the company of his superiority. Even Tatjana herself fails to breach his haughtiness.

Scene two.
Tatjana’s bedroom.
Tatjana writes a letter to Onegin, in which she pours out her passionate love for a man almost unknown to her. After falling asleep exhausted over the letter, Tatjana has a dream in which she sees herself reflected in a mirror and in it the beloved face of Onegin appears to reveal that their love is mutual.