Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov lives in a garret in St. Petersburg. Destitute and feeling cut off from humanity, he considers committing a terrible crime-killing a pawnbroker-to steal her money. After hearing people say that society would be better off without the pawnbroker, he murders her-and her sister, who walks in while Raskolnikov is raiding the pawnbroker's wares. As the novel's psychological drama unfolds, Raskolnikov lives in constant fear of discovery. Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky