Also known as The Possessed or Demons, this novel is set in a provincial Russian town where a group of political radicals stirs up trouble. Around the charismatic Nikolai Stavrogin and the scheming Pyotr Verkhovensky, ideas of revolution, nihilism and belief collide with the older generation's liberal comfort. Inspired partly by a real political murder, the book is at once a dark satire, a political drama and a warning about ideas pursued without conscience.