Our eternal theme is crime and punishment. In Boris Godunov, the problems of conscience and existential choice are linked to the history of the country. Pushkin says that these things are woven into a mysterious knot or pattern. The choice of each of us is also the choice of our own history. An incorrect individual choice or a karmic mistake can lead to a chain of fatal events. If a person finds himself in power, it can become a problem for the whole people.

St. Petersburg, 1860. After a member of the imperial family is assassinated, Fyodor Dostoevsky meets a man institutionalized in a mental asylum — who confesses taking part in the terrorist plot and reveals that his fellow conspirators are planning to kill another of the Tsar's relatives. Plagued by debts and struggling to finish his latest novel, Dostoevsky must act fast to call off the attack.