"Netochka Nezvanova - A Nameless Nobody" - tells the story of a childhood domina
ted by her stepfather, Efimov, a failed musician who believes he is a neglected
genius. The young girl is strangely drawn to this drunken ruin of a man, who exp
loits her and drives the family to poverty. But when she is rescued by an aristo
cratic family, the abuse against Netochka's delicate psyche continues in a more
subtle way, condemning her to remain an outsider - a solitary spectator of a gli
ttering society.