Returning to St Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, the gentle and naïve epileptic Prince Myshkin - known as the 'idiot' - pays a visit to his distant relative General Yepanchin and proceeds to charm the General and his family. But his life is thrown into turmoil when he chances on a photograph of the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna. Utterly infatuated, he soon finds himself caught up in a love triangle and drawn into a web of blackmail, betrayal, and finally, murder.