Russian Prince Dmitri Ivanovitch Nekhludof falls in love with his aunts' ward, Katusha Maslova, while visiting their farm in the Ural Mountains. Katusha returns his love, but he is called to St. Petersburg to join the army, and becomes a changed man. On his way to fight in the war against Turkey, Dmitri's regiment stops over at his aunts' farm. Military life has roughened Dmitri's temperament, and that night he rapes Katusha. Katusha becomes pregnant and is thrown out of the household because of her "indiscretion." Her child is stillborn, and out of desperation, Katusha turns to prostitution to survive. One year later, Katusha is accused of murder, and Dmitri serves on the jury at her trial. He is shocked to see her dissipation, but his plea on her behalf fails to sway his fellow jurors, and Katusha is exiled to Siberia. Dmitri visits her in prison, but she is drunk and solicits him. Dmitri is so horrified that his actions have so denigrated the woman he once loved that he sells everything he owns and follows the train carrying convicts into Siberia. After the train journey ends, the prisoners continue on foot across the frozen land, and although Katusha tells Dmitri to return to civilization, he stays with her. Dmitri finally gets a pardon for Katusha at a Siberian station and proposes to her. She does not respond immediately, but tells him if she stays at the station in the morning, she will marry him. In the morning, Katusha clearly rejects his proposal as she joins the other prisoners on their march to their destiny.
