When the rich land owner Velchaninov arrives in St Petersburg, he receives a surprise visit from an old acquaintance, Trusotsky, who has been recently widowed.

His late wife, Natalia, was the secret lover of Velchaninov, who realizes that the young child accompanying Trusotsky is his natural daughter. From then on, the destinies of the two men become intertwined as they engage – at turns repelled and attracted by each other – in a dangerous game of cat and mouse that will lead to a final dramatic confrontation.

Compelling, gripping, darkly humorous, The Eternal Husband – composed by the author at the peak of his writing powers, between The Idiot and Devils, and described by Dostoevsky's biographer Joseph Frank as “a small masterpiece” – shows Dostoevsky at his best as a ruthless dissector of the quirks and foibles of the human character.