Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a former law student, lives in extreme poverty in a tiny, rented room in Saint Petersburg. He has abandoned all attempts to support himself and has devised a plan to murder and rob an elderly pawn-broker, Alyona Ivanovna. While still considering the plan, Raskolnikov makes the acquaintance of Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a drunkard who recently squandered his famil...