A poor student with a conflicted idea of himself, Raskolnikov (Rodya as his mother calls him) decides to kill a corrupt pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, with whom he has been dealing, with the idea of using the money to start his life all over, and to help those who are in need of it. It is later revealed that he also commits the murder as justification for his pride, as he wants to prove that he is "exceptional" in the way Napoleon was. He commits the murder, but is so nervous during the crime that he makes a few mistakes, and is afraid that he will be caught.
Raskolnikov finds a small purse on Alyona Ivanovna's body, which he hides under a rock without checking its contents. His grand failure is that he lacks the conviction of his beliefs to accomplish greatness, and thus declines into madness. After he confesses to the destitute,
pious prostitute Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova, she guides him towards admitting to the crime, and he confesses to Porfiry Petrovich, a police lieutenant with a keen psychological sense (the book implies the policeman suspected him from the start). Raskolnikov is sentenced to
exile in
Siberia, accompanied by Sofya Semyonovna, where he experiences a mental and spiritual rebirth.