Roderick Raskolnikov, a brilliant criminology student and writer, becomes embittered by poverty and his inability to support his family. When he sees a desperate prostitute, Sonya, degraded by a vicious pawnbroker, Raskolnikov, a proponent of the idea that some people are imbued with such intelligence that the law cannot be applied to them as to other people, decides to rid the world of the pawnbroker and thus save his family and Sonya as well from the fate poverty forces on them. When Porphiry, the police detective investigating the murder, encounters Raskolnikov, he finds a man nearly crippled by the guilt and paranoia his deed has burdened him with. But Raskolnikov clings with as much coldness and calculation as he can muster to his guiding idea, that some crimes ought not to be punished. 故事发生在圣彼得堡的贫民区内，拉斯柯尔尼科夫（彼得·洛 Peter Lorre 饰）是生活在那里的一名穷学生，本来在学校里读法律系的他，最终因为交不起学费而失去了继续深造的资格，只能灰溜溜的回到家中，靠着母亲和妹妹养活。 一次偶然中，拉斯柯尔尼科夫结识了名叫马尔美拉陀夫的男人，马尔美拉陀夫和拉斯柯尔尼科夫一样闲赋在家，为了生存，他竟然逼迫自己的长女去当了妓女。拉斯柯尔尼科夫发誓自己不能够和眼前这个邪恶的男人混为一谈，决定干一番大事。一天，拉斯柯尔尼科夫杀死了放高利贷的当铺老板娘，又杀死了老板娘的妹妹，回到家后，深深的罪恶感开始折磨拉斯柯尔尼科夫的内心。
