The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov's neglect of his sons and financial dispute with his eldest, Dmitri, intensify a family conflict. Dmitri believes Fyodor has withheld money from his inheritance, and both compete for Grushenka's affection. Dmitri's engagement to Katerina Ivanovna is already strained. Ivan, the intellectually skeptical middle brother, questions divine justice and suffering, while Alyosha, the youngest, follows the monastery elder Zossima.

After Zossima's death, Alyosha leaves the monastery and helps people in the town, including the impoverished Snegiryov family and a group of schoolboys. Meanwhile Dmitri desperately searches for money and Grushenka. Fyodor is murdered. Dmitri, who has threatened his father, entered his garden, struck the servant Grigory, and later appeared with fifteen hundred roubles, is arrested. He denies the murder and maintains that the money was half of the three thousand roubles Katerina had entrusted to him.

The servant Smerdyakov tells Ivan that he murdered Fyodor and took the money. He claims Ivan's earlier departure and conversations helped enable the crime, leaving Ivan tormented by his responsibility. Smerdyakov kills himself before the trial. Ivan, gravely ill, attempts to expose Smerdyakov and produces the stolen banknotes, but his testimony does not persuade the court. Katerina produces Dmitri's threatening letter. Despite the defense's challenge to the circumstantial evidence, the jury finds Dmitri guilty of premeditated murder for robbery without mitigation.

In the epilogue, Ivan remains seriously ill while Katerina and Alyosha discuss Ivan's plan to help Dmitri escape during transport to Siberia. Dmitri considers fleeing with Grushenka, but the escape has not taken place. Katerina and Dmitri briefly reconcile, yet tensions with Grushenka remain. The novel ends with Ilusha's funeral, where Alyosha asks the dead schoolboy's friends to remember their shared kindness and affirms his belief that they will meet after the resurrection.