Considered by some to be the world's greatest novel,
Anna Karenina contains two plots: the tragedy of Madame Karenina, in love with a man who is not her husband; and the story of Konstantine Levin, a sensitive man whose personal philosophy is Tolstoy's reason for writing about him.
Anna Karenina, the sister of Stepan Oblonsky, comes to Moscow in an attempt to patch up a dispute between her brother and his wife, Dolly. While there, she meets a handsome young officer named Aleksei Vronski, who is rumored to be in love with Dolly's younger sister, Kitty. However, Konstantine Levin is also in love with Kitty, and he succeeds in marrying her.
The forbidden romance between Anna and Vronsky has tragic consequences, and is masterfully set in counterpoint to Kitty's more enduring marriage with Levin, who is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often illuminating the author's search for meaning in life, his love of a natural, simple existence, and various other views and convictions.
