It's the 1870s in the small Russian town of Ryevsk. The lusty Fyodor Karamazov, a bit of a cad who has lived off the wealth of his long deceased first wife, has never loved any of his four now adult sons, including his illegitimate epileptic son, Pavel Smerdjakov, who he employs as his personal servant. The four brothers were largely raised apart. Alexi, the youngest, is the only one who loves his father, but does so as he loves all mankind in his piety. Second eldest Ivan, who lives most of the time in Moscow working in the newspaper business, is the emotionally troubled one. And the eldest Dmitri, an army lieutenant and the only offspring on Fyodor's first wife, knows that he is most like their father, and as such has the greatest animosity toward him in their mutual depravity. Dmitri has knowingly racked up gambling debts in waiting for what he considers his fair share of his mother's wealth, something that Fyodor will not willingly give to him but will loan on a request by request basis which now does not include paying for Dmitri's gambling debts. As a matter of circumstance, Dmitri gets engaged to a virtuous young woman named Katya, for both as a matter of honor, although Katya mistakes that honor for love. The situation between all members of the Karamazov family becomes more complex when Fyodor takes measures to make it more difficult for Dmitri, who meets tavern owner Grushenka in the process. Dmitri falls in love with Grushenka and eventually wants to become an honorable man in all aspects of his life for her, their relationship despite Fyodor himself having asked her previously to marry him.