It tells the story of the murder of a depravad landowner, Fyodor Karamozov, and the ensuring investigation and trial, concentrating on the parts played by Karamazov's three sons, Mitya, Ivan and Alyosha. Ivan is a revolutionary intellectual, while the young novice Alyosha Mitya's passion for two women that contributes to disaster, and it is he who inwardly accepts the guilt of his father's murderer.