The Idiot Summary

A noble-born young man with light hair, in his late twenties, returns to St. Petersburg after spending four years in a Swiss clinic due to his "idiotic" behavior and epileptic condition. He becomes acquainted with his distant relative, Madame Yepanchin, wife of the highly regarded General Yepanchin, and their three daughters. During his visit, he meets Gavril Ardalyonovich Ivolgin, an ambitious assistant to the general who, despite being in love with the youngest Yepanchin daughter, is attempting to wed Anastassya Filippovna Barashkov, a stunningly beautiful woman with a tainted past.

The young man rents a room in the Ivolgin residence and witnesses Anastassya's attempt to insult Ganya's family, which he successfully prevents. A party is later held where she is to announce whether she will marry Ganya or not, but the noble man, having recently discovered he is due to receive a large inheritance, offers to marry her himself. Despite his generous proposal, she chooses to leave with Rogozhin, a passionate man deeply in love with her. The young man spends the next half year following her as she bounces between him and Rogozhin, in the process depleting his inheritance by paying off numerous fraudulent demands from supposed relatives and creditors.

After a near-fatal encounter with Rogozhin, the prince retreats to the nearby town of Pavlovsk, renting rooms from a rogue functionary named Lebedev, where most of the story's characters spend their summer. There, he falls in love with Aglaya Yepanchin, who reciprocates his feelings, but due to his erratic behavior and disease, their relationship is not well received. Despite this, Aglaya arranges a meeting between herself, the prince, and Anastassya, forcing him to choose between them. The prince hesitates, causing Aglaya to sever any hopes of an engagement. Anastassya decides to run away with Rogozhin, who ends up killing her. The prince follows them, discovering the murder and staying with Rogozhin until the authorities arrive. As a result, Rogozhin is sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor, while the prince returns to the Swiss clinic, having lost his sanity. Aglaya, on the other hand, elopes with a deceitful Polish count who soon abandons her.