Arkady returns from university with his friend Bazarov, a nihilist who believes only in science and denies all traditional authority. The fathers are baffled; the sons are uncertain whether their rebellion can sustain itself. Turgenev published this in 1862, and it captured the generation gap in Russian society with such precision that the term 'nihilist' entered common usage. The novel treats both generations with sympathy, showing the costs of change and the costs of resistance.