小说描写穷大学生拉斯柯尔尼科夫为生计所迫，受无政府主义思想毒害，精神失常，杀死放高利贷的房东老太婆和她的无辜的妹妹，制造了一起震惊全俄的凶杀案，最终在基督徒索尼雅姑娘的规劝下，投案自首，被判流放西伯利亚。作品着重刻画主人公犯罪前后的心里变化，揭示俄国下层人民的艰难生活。(The novel depicts poor college student Raskolnikov who has suffered from the real life and was influenced by anarchist thought to be insane and kill the landlord and her innocent sister to cause the murder case that shocking the entire Russia. Finally, under the persuasion of the Christian Sonia, he surrendered and was sentenced to exile in Siberia. The works focus on depicting the mental changes of the hero before and after the crime to reveal the hard life of the Russian people.)