A former aristocrat Ippolit Vorobyaninov leads a miserable life in Soviet Russia. His mother-in-law reveals a secret to him - she hid family diamonds in one of the twelve chairs they once had. Vorobyaninov in cooperation with a young con artist Ostap Bender start a long search for the diamonds.

Ostap Bender
Ippolit "Kisa" Vorobyaninov
Father Fyodor
Yelena Stanislavovna Bour
Yelizaveta "Liza" Petrovna
Ellochka Shchukina
Musik, Bruns' wife
madame Gritsatsuyeva
Father Fyodor's wife
fitter Mechnikov
Polesov
one-eyed chess player