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Raskolnikov, a mentally unstable drop-out student, chooses to live in a tiny, rented room in Saint Petersburg. He refuses all help, even from his friend Razumikhin, and devises a plan to murder and to rob an unpleasant elderly money-lender, Alyona Ivanovna; his motivation, whether personal or ideological, remains unclear. He soon sneaks into Alyona Ivanovna's apartment one day, where he murders her with an axe; however, he is also forced to kill her half-sister, Lizaveta, who happens to enter the scene of the crime.

After the bungled murder, Raskolnikov falls into a feverish state. He behaves as though he wishes to betray himself, and the detective Porfiry begins to suspect him purely on psychological grounds. At the same time, a chaste relationship develops between Raskolnikov and Sonya—a prostitute full of Christian virtue, driven into the profession by the habits of her father—and Raskolnikov confesses his crime to her. The confession is overheard by Svidrigaylov, a shadowy figure whose aim is to seduce Raskolnikov's sister, Dunya. Svidrigaylov appears to have a hold over Raskolnikov, but after realizing that Dunya could never love him, he unexpectedly ends his own life. Raskolnikov eventually goes to the police himself to confess. He is sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia; Sonya follows him, and the Epilogue holds out hope for Raskolnikov's redemption and moral regeneration under her influence.