'It was a wonderful night, the kind of night that can perhaps only happen when we are young, dear reader.' With this sentence, Dostoyevsky opens his story of an incipient love that arises from the chance encounter between the lonely narrator and the young Nastenka. Over four nights, the two reveal their fears and longings to each other. But Nastenka's heart belongs to someone else. Dostoyevsky's 'sensitive novel' tells of unfulfilled love in a moving and sensitive way.

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden sex worker, can offer the chance of redemption.