Scene i. This takes place five years later in a monastery. An old monk, Pimen is writing the history of Russia. He has nearly finished, and he has got to the year when the Tsar’s son seems to have been murdered. He is reading what he has written to a young monk, Grigory. Grigory then has a dream. In the dream he is standing on top of a high tower and looks down on the people who are laughing at him. He feels guilty and falls from the tower. Pimen tries to comfort him. He says that Boris murdered the Tsar’s son. Grigory learns that the Tsar’s son, if he had still been alive, would have been the same age as he is now. He decides to pretend to be the Tsar’s son and to claim the throne as his.