Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is a former law student living in extreme poverty in Saint Petersburg. Upon succumbing to his debt, he devises a plan to murder a wealthy, elderly pawnbroker. After Rodion commits the murders, he must address his guilt and decide whether his horrible sin was worth the sacrifice. This novel, considered the first of Fyodor Dostoevsky's mature writings, helped bring Dostoevsky to the forefront of Russian writers.