Fyodor Karamazov's four sons grow up separated due to his neglect, each forming a distinct and opposing character.

Alyosha visits his mother's grave and decides to join Father Zosima's monastery.

The Karamazov family gathers at the monastery for a meeting with Father Zosima to resolve the dispute between Dmitri and Fyodor.

Dmitri arrives late to the monastery meeting and reveals that both he and his father are competing for Grushenka's love.

Father Zosima shocks the entire gathering by bowing deeply to Dmitri's feet.

Dmitri confesses to Alyosha the story of Katerina's nocturnal visit and how he chose to honor rather than humiliate her.

Dmitri storms Fyodor's house looking for Grushenka and beats his father badly before Alyosha intervenes.

Ivan recites his poem about the Grand Inquisitor to Alyosha at a tavern, arguing Christ gave humans an unbearable freedom.

Father Zosima dies and his body rapidly decays, sparking scandal and disillusionment among the monks and visitors.

Dmitri wounds Grigory outside Fyodor's house and races to the inn at Mokroye to find Grushenka.

Police arrive at the inn in Mokroye and arrest Dmitri for his father's murder.

Under interrogation, Dmitri reveals he saved half of Katerina's stolen money sewn inside an amulet worn around his neck.

Smerdyakov confesses to Ivan that he murdered Fyodor, insisting he was only carrying out Ivan's unspoken wishes.

Ivan deliriously confesses to the murder at the trial and is removed from court; Katerina then produces Dmitri's incriminating letter.

Dmitri is found guilty and proclaims his innocence as Alyosha delivers his first sermon to the schoolboys at Ilyusha's grave.

The Brothers Karamazov follows the neglected sons of the dissolute Fyodor Karamazov as their reunion ignites a deadly rivalry over the woman Grushenka. Dmitri's volcanic conflict with his father escalates into violence and leads to Fyodor's murder, for which Dmitri is arrested despite his innocence. Ivan's philosophical torment and Alyosha's devotion to Father Zosima shape the novel's moral landscape throughout the investigation. The true murderer, Smerdyakov, eventually confesses to Ivan alone before hanging himself, leaving Ivan shattered by guilt. Ivan's attempt to confess at the trial is dismissed as madness, and Dmitri is unjustly convicted despite powerful testimony in his favor. The novel closes with Dmitri's guilty verdict and Alyosha's first act of spiritual leadership among the schoolboys gathered at Ilyusha's grave.

The Karamazov family's fatal collision and its aftermath.

Ivan's article on ecclesiastical courts earns contradictory praise from both atheists and churchmen upon publication.

Father Zosima tells Madame Khokhlakov that active love is laborious and unglamorous, utterly unlike romantic love in dreams.

Fyodor crashes the monastery dinner uninvited and accuses the monks of hypocrisy and abuse of power.

Alyosha delivers Dmitri's farewell bow message to Katerina, signaling the end of their engagement.

Grushenka humiliates Katerina during their meeting by refusing to kiss her hand and alluding to Katerina's shameful secret.

Alyosha returns to the monastery to sleep and opens a letter to discover it is a declaration of love from the young Lise.

A group of schoolboys throw rocks at one another and one of them bites Alyosha's finger when he tries to intervene.

Alyosha visits Snegiryov's impoverished family to offer 200 roubles from Katerina, but Snegiryov furiously throws the money to the ground.

Father Ferapont publicly declares at Zosima's coffin that the smell of decay is a divine sign of Zosima's arrogance.

Grushenka confesses to Alyosha that Rakitin was paid to bring Alyosha to her for seduction, then departs joyfully for Mokroye.

Dmitri fails to secure 3,000 roubles from both Samsonov and Madame Khokhlakov, leaving him completely desperate.

Dmitri redeems his pistols from Perkhotin and orders a grand feast delivered to the inn at Mokroye.

Kolya brings his dog Perezvon to the dying Ilyusha, who weeps with joy believing the dog is his lost Zhuchka.

Alyosha arrives at Ivan's door and tells him Smerdyakov has hanged himself while Ivan burns with fever and hallucinations.

Snegiryov collapses in grief at Ilyusha's funeral, sobbing uncontrollably upon seeing his dead son's empty boots.

While the Karamazov murder drama unfolds, a rich world of secondary lives and encounters shapes the novel's moral texture. Ivan's intellectual provocations unsettle the monks at the monastery, and Fyodor's drunken buffoonery exposes the family's deep dysfunction at every turn. Katerina's entanglement with both Dmitri and Ivan deepens the romantic turmoil, while Alyosha serves as messenger and peacemaker between warring characters. The subplot involving the schoolboys, the dying Ilyusha, and his proud father Snegiryov illuminates themes of suffering, class humiliation, and small acts of kindness. The arrest and investigation of Dmitri draw secondary characters—Perkhotin, Madame Khokhlakov, and Grushenka—into the justice system's chaotic orbit. Together these episodes build the novel's argument that guilt and love are never confined to a single person but spread across an entire community.

The relationships and encounters that surround the central crime.

Ivan tells Father Zosima at the monastery that he believes there can be no virtue if the human soul is not immortal.

Fyodor's servant Smerdyakov is revealed to be Fyodor's own illegitimate son, born to the homeless woman called Stinking Lizaveta.

Alyosha erupts at Katerina, declaring that she loves Ivan rather than Dmitri and is tormenting everyone out of stubborn pride.

Ivan tells Alyosha he wishes to return God's ticket because the suffering of innocent children makes the world's harmony unacceptable.

Alyosha responds to Ivan's Grand Inquisitor poem by rising and kissing Ivan softly on the lips, mirroring Christ's silent kiss.

Father Zosima tells Alyosha before dying that he bowed to Dmitri to acknowledge the immense suffering that awaited him.

Zosima's recorded memoirs reveal his dying brother Markel declared that all people are guilty before everyone and all creation.

Zosima describes falling to his knees to beg his servant Afanasy's forgiveness before a duel, a moment that led him to become a monk.

Alyosha experiences a mystical vision of Father Zosima at the monastery after the funeral, and his shattered faith is fully restored.

Lise tears up her engagement with Alyosha, confesses to violent destructive urges, and then deliberately slams a door on her own finger.

Alyosha trembles as he tells Ivan that it was not Ivan who killed their father, sensing that Ivan feels indirectly responsible.

Ivan carries an unconscious peasant he had earlier knocked into the snow to a doctor and pays for the man's treatment.

Ivan hallucinates a devilish figure who taunts him with the idea that perpetual doubt between belief and disbelief is his true fate.

Katerina shocks the courtroom by recounting how Dmitri gave her 5,000 roubles and simply bowed to her without taking advantage.

Katerina and Dmitri reconcile in prison, but Grushenka refuses to forgive Katerina for presenting damning evidence against Dmitri at trial.

Beneath the murder plot lies a series of philosophical awakenings and private revelations that expose each character's true nature. Ivan's debate about God and the suffering of innocent children plants the seed for his eventual psychological collapse and public confession at the trial. Father Zosima's life story—his brother Markel's deathbed declaration, his humbling of himself before a servant, and his counsel to a secret murderer—models the path of redemption through confession and love. Alyosha's mystical vision after Zosima's funeral restores his faith just as Lise's self-destruction and Ivan's hallucinations show faith crumbling under guilt and doubt. Smerdyakov's final confession to Ivan and Ivan's subsequent rescue of an injured peasant mark the novel's deepest moral reckoning. The trial's reversals—Katerina first defending and then betraying Dmitri—seal his fate, while the epilogue leaves open the hard possibility of redemption through suffering.