Anna Karenina

Part I: The Oblonsky household is in chaos. Stiva has been caught cheating. Anna arrives to mediate. At the station, Vronsky and Anna meet. At the ball, Vronsky abandons Kitty for Anna. Kitty is destroyed. Levin goes home to his estate.

Part II: Anna returns to Petersburg. Vronsky follows her. Society senses the affair. Kitty recovers in a German spa. Levin farms and reflects. Anna's husband Karenin suspects but avoids confrontation. The affair becomes real.

Part III: Karenin confronts Anna about appearances. Levin's farming and philosophical reflections. Levin mows with the peasants — the novel's pastoral high point. Anna tells Karenin she is pregnant with Vronsky's child.

Part IV: Anna nearly dies giving birth to Vronsky's daughter. Karenin forgives both Anna and Vronsky. Vronsky, overcome with shame, attempts suicide. Anna survives. She chooses Vronsky anyway. Levin and Kitty reunite.

Part V: Anna and Vronsky live together in Italy, then return to Russia. Anna is a social pariah. She cannot see her son Seryozha. Karenin falls under the influence of the hypocritical Countess Lydia. Levin and Kitty marry and establish their household.

Part VI: Anna and Vronsky at his estate Vozdvizhenskoye. Anna's jealousy grows. Levin and Kitty in the country — Levin's brother Nikolai dies. Dolly visits Anna and registers both the charm and the horror of her situation. Anna begins to deteriorate.

Part VII: Anna and Vronsky in Moscow. Their relationship collapses under the weight of jealousy and isolation. Levin's son is born. Anna takes morphine. She quarrels with Vronsky, writes him a letter, follows him to the station, and throws herself under the train.

Part VIII (Epilogue): Vronsky departs for the Serbo-Turkish war, seeking death. Levin, grieving and searching for meaning, is transformed by a peasant's offhand remark about 'living for God' — and finds, not certainty, but enough.