Raskolnikov is a poor student living in St Petersburg. Desperate to escape his poverty, he murders his pawnbroker and her sister, and flees with a few watches and bits of jewellery. Although at first nobody suspects him, his own conscience plagues him incessantly - and it isn't long before a highly intelligent police detective by the name of Petrovich begins to have his doubts about Raskolnikov's innocence, and is determined to make him confess