After spending several years in a sanatorium recovering from an illness that cau
sed him to lose his memory and ability to reason, Prince Myshkin arrives in St P
etersburg and is at once confronted with the stark realities of life in the Russ
ian capital - from greed, murder and nihilism to passion, vanity and love. Mocke
d for his childlike naivety yet valued for his openness and understanding, Princ
e Myshkin finds himself entangled with two women in a position he cannot bring h
imself to resolve. Dostoevsky, who wrote that in the character of Prince Myshkin
he hoped to portray a "wholly virtuous man", shows the workings of the human mi
nd and our relationships with others in all their complex and contradictory natu
re.
