The article is devoted to the “plot of seduction” in Mikhail Lermontov’s long story “Princess Mary” through the prism of perception of the heroine. This approach is conditioned by the transformation of understanding of the plot in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century, in particular – in some of the writer’s works (“Demon”, “Princess Ligovskaya”, “Princess Mary”). The author concludes that this process is inextricably linked to Mikhail Lermontov’s reflection of moral and philosophical categories of Contempt, Hatred and Love.