Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhludov is haunted by a memory. Following his short affair with a maid, the girl was thrown out of her job and forced to turn to prostitution. She is then falsely accused of murder and sent to Siberia. Discovering this, Nekhludov is consumed with guilt, visits her and meets others unjustly injured in prison. The author, Leo Tolstoy, uses this plot to criticize and condemn political and religious institutions alike that result in painful injustice.
