The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)
Short summary
Moscow, 1930s. At Patriarch's Ponds, a mysterious foreign professor named Woland met two literary figures and predicted one's death under a tram. The prediction came true immediately. The surviving poet, Ivan Homeless, chased Woland and his bizarre retinue but ended up in a psychiatric clinic.
In the clinic, Ivan met a patient who had written a novel about Pontius Pilate. This master had burned his manuscript after critics destroyed his reputation, then lost his beloved Margarita and descended into madness. When Ivan mentioned meeting Satan, the master revealed that Woland was indeed the devil. The master told Ivan his story and showed him that his novel about Pilate still existed, as Woland had declared:
Forgive me, but I don't believe you, that cannot be: manuscripts don't burn.
Meanwhile, Woland and his retinue—Koroviev, Behemoth the cat, and Azazello—caused chaos throughout Moscow. They took over an apartment, performed a scandalous magic show where money rained from the ceiling and women's clothes vanished, and set multiple buildings ablaze. The authorities tried to capture them but failed.
Margarita, desperate to find the master, accepted Azazello's invitation to become a witch and host Satan's grand ball. After the ball, Woland granted her wish and returned the master to her, along with his restored manuscript. However, a messenger from Jesus Christ arrived, requesting that Woland grant the master peace rather than light.
Woland gave the master and Margarita poisoned wine. As they died, the master completed his novel by freeing Pontius Pilate from his two-thousand-year punishment. Woland then led them to their eternal refuge—a peaceful house where the master could write forever, while Ivan remained in Moscow, haunted each full moon by dreams of his lost friends and the story of Pilate.
Detailed summary by books
Book titles and their division into chapters are editorial.
Book 1. Woland arrives in Moscow
The consultant at Patriarchs Ponds; Berliozs prophesied death
On a scorching May evening at Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow, two literary figures met to discuss an anti-religious poem. The editor of a literary journal and chairman of Massolit arrived with a young poet to review his commissioned work about Jesus Christ.
As they drank warm apricot soda, the editor lectured the poet about the non-existence of Jesus, citing ancient historians and dismissing biblical accounts as mythology. Their conversation was interrupted by a mysterious foreigner who appeared on a nearby bench. This strange man wore expensive grey attire, carried a walking stick with a poodle's head, and possessed unsettling mismatched eyes—one black, one green.
The professor interjected into their discussion, claiming to have personally witnessed the events on Pontius Pilate's balcony. He then made an ominous prediction: the editor would die that very evening, decapitated by a young woman. The professor revealed knowledge of private details about the editor's life and recounted a lengthy story about Pilate's encounter with a vagrant philosopher. When the editor attempted to leave for a phone call, he slipped on sunflower oil at a tram turnstile—exactly as the professor had foretold—and was decapitated by the tram. His severed head bounced along the cobblestones as witnesses watched in horror.
Ivans mad pursuit and forced hospitalization
The poet, realizing the professor had foreknowledge of the death, pursued him through Moscow streets. The chase involved the professor's bizarre companions: a tall man in checkered clothing with a broken pince-nez and an enormous black cat that walked on its hind legs and attempted to board a tram. The poet's frantic pursuit led him to dive into the Moscow River, where his clothes were stolen, leaving him only striped drawers and a torn shirt. Dressed in this absurd manner and carrying a candle and icon, he burst into the writers' restaurant at Griboedov's, desperately warning about the consultant and the editor's murder. The assembled writers, believing him drunk or mad, had him bound and transported to a psychiatric clinic. There, a doctor diagnosed him with schizophrenia and administered a sedative, ending his wild evening.
The haunted apartment and Wolands sinister retinue
The director of the Variety Theatre awoke with a terrible hangover in the apartment he shared with the deceased editor, unable to recall the previous night. He discovered the professor in his bedroom, accompanied by a talking cat and a tall assistant. These figures revealed they had made a contract for theatrical performances, though the director remembered nothing. When he protested, the retinue mocked his incompetence and corruption. Suddenly, the director found himself transported to Yalta, collapsing on a jetty by the sea, while back in Moscow, the apartment became the base for the professor's operations. The building's chairman was framed for currency speculation after accepting a bribe, and mysterious disappearances began plaguing those connected to the apartment.
Terror strikes Varenukha and Rimsky
The theatre's financial director and administrator struggled to locate their missing director, receiving contradictory telegrams claiming he was in Yalta. When the administrator attempted to deliver evidence to authorities, he was ambushed in a toilet during a storm by two attackers who stole his briefcase. They dragged him to the haunted apartment, where a naked red-haired woman with phosphorescent eyes kissed him, transforming him into a vampire. That night, the financial director fled the theatre after encountering the vampirized administrator and the red-haired woman at his office window. A cock's crow saved him, causing the supernatural beings to flee. He immediately caught a train to Leningrad, his hair turned white from terror.
The catastrophic black magic séance
At the Variety Theatre, the professor and his retinue performed a black magic show. The cat performed card tricks, and money rained from the ceiling onto the delighted audience. When the master of ceremonies attempted to expose the tricks as hypnosis, the cat tore off his head, which continued speaking before being reattached. The stage transformed into a Parisian fashion boutique where women exchanged their clothes for new outfits. The show concluded with the professor exposing a commission chairman's secret affair, causing his wife's relative to attack him violently. The cat then set fire to the confectionery counter with benzene, and the entire store erupted in flames as the performers vanished, leaving chaos throughout the building.
Ivan meets the Master; the tragic story unfolds
In the psychiatric clinic, the poet received a nighttime visitor who entered through the balcony. This mysterious man wore a greasy black cap with an embroidered 'M' and revealed he too was hospitalized because of Pontius Pilate. He confirmed that the poet had indeed met Satan at Patriarch's Ponds.
The visitor recounted his tragic story: he had won money, rented a basement apartment, and spent a year writing a novel about Pilate. He met a woman carrying yellow flowers on the street, and they fell deeply in love.
Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes!
She became his secret wife, visiting daily while married to another man. When he submitted his novel for publication, critics savagely attacked it, calling it an apology for Jesus Christ. In despair, he burned his manuscript. His beloved promised to leave her husband and return the next morning, but fifteen minutes after she left, someone knocked at his window. The visitor refused to reveal what happened next, only whispering the details to the poet. Months later, he found himself outside his basement in winter, hearing a gramophone playing inside, with nowhere to go. He ended up in the clinic, believing himself incurable, having renounced his former life and identity.
Nikanors dream and the execution on Bald Mountain
The building's chairman, arrested for currency possession, was hospitalized after claiming unclean powers were responsible. That night, he dreamed of a theatrical performance where citizens were pressured to surrender hidden foreign currency. In his dream, various characters confessed to hoarding money, and an actor performed Pushkin's poem about a covetous knight. Meanwhile, the novel the visitor had written told of Pilate's final hours with the condemned philosopher. On the fourteenth day of Nisan, Pilate suffered from severe migraines as he interrogated the vagrant.
The philosopher claimed all people were good and preached about a kingdom of truth. Despite Pilate's attempts to save him, political pressure forced the procurator to confirm the death sentence. Three men were crucified on Bald Mountain under a scorching sun, surrounded by Roman soldiers. As a storm approached, the condemned were mercifully killed with spear thrusts. A former tax collector retrieved the philosopher's body during the tempest and disappeared into the darkness.
Chaos spreads through Moscows institutions
The day after the séance, Moscow descended into chaos. A massive queue formed outside the Variety Theatre as rumors spread about the scandalous performance. The theatre's administration had completely vanished, and investigations began. A bookkeeper attempting to deliver receipts found his money had transformed into foreign currency, leading to his arrest. At the Commission on Spectacles, an empty suit sat at a desk, writing and speaking in the manager's voice after a cat-faced man and his companion had visited. The manager had literally vanished, leaving only his clothes. At an affiliate office, the entire staff found themselves compelled to sing folk songs uncontrollably, unable to stop even when they desperately wanted to. They were eventually transported to the psychiatric clinic. Throughout the city, strange incidents multiplied: black cats were hunted and killed by frightened citizens, people with similar names to the professor's associates were detained, and anyone performing tricks or carrying suspicious items caused panic.
Book 2. Margarita and the final reckoning
Margaritas transformation and flight as a witch
A beautiful, wealthy, but deeply unhappy woman attended the editor's funeral, where she encountered a red-haired man with a fang who knew intimate details about her life.
He invited her to visit a distinguished foreigner, promising information about her lost love. He gave her a golden box containing magical cream. That evening, she rubbed the cream on her body and transformed into a young, beautiful witch. She flew on a broomstick through Moscow, first destroying the apartment of the critic who had ruined her beloved's novel, then soaring over forests and rivers. She attended a gathering of witches by a riverbank before being driven to Moscow in a flying car piloted by a black bird.
The great ball at Satans
She was brought to the professor's apartment, which had expanded impossibly through knowledge of the fifth dimension. The professor, revealed as Satan himself, needed her to serve as hostess for his annual spring ball of the full moon. She was bathed in blood, anointed with oils, and crowned with diamonds. At midnight, the ball began in a vast tropical forest that transformed into grand ballrooms. An orchestra led by Johann Strauss played as thousands of historical criminals and murderers ascended a staircase, each kissing her hand and knee. For three hours, she greeted an endless stream of poisoners, traitors, and murderers from throughout history. Among them was a young woman who had smothered her infant son. After the guests finished arriving, she toured rooms filled with champagne pools, dancing apes, and supernatural revelry. Finally, Satan appeared, drinking blood from the severed head of the editor, transformed into a jeweled skull. A spy was shot, and she drank his blood from a cup before the entire scene decayed around her.
The Master is extracted from the clinic
After the ball, Satan offered to grant her wish. Following his advice, she asked for her beloved to be returned. The writer appeared, disheveled and ill from the psychiatric clinic. Satan revealed that manuscripts don't burn and returned the novel the writer thought he had destroyed. The writer's denouncer was expelled through a window, and other victims of Satan's visit were dealt with. Satan then sent the couple back to their basement apartment, which had been miraculously restored with all the writer's possessions intact, including his manuscript.
Never ask for anything! Never for anything, and especially from those who are stronger than you. They'll make the offer themselves, and give everything themselves.
Pilates final night: Judas is murdered; Yeshua is buried
In ancient Judea, Pilate met with his secret service chief, expressing his hatred for the city and his desire to save the betrayer who had turned in the philosopher. That night, the betrayer was lured to a garden by a woman and murdered by assassins who left his money at the high priest's house. The philosopher's body was buried in a secret location, and his disciple, who had tried to kill him mercifully during the execution, was brought to Pilate. The disciple revealed the philosopher's final teachings and accepted a gift of clean parchment to continue recording his words.
Final destruction in Moscow; Wolands retinue departs
Investigators finally stormed the haunted apartment, but the cat shot at them with a pistol, set the apartment ablaze with benzene, and escaped through the window. The building erupted in flames as fire engines raced to the scene. Satan's assistant and the cat then appeared at a currency store, where they caused chaos by eating food without paying before setting the store on fire. They next visited the writers' restaurant, where they were mysteriously welcomed by the manager before armed men burst in and opened fire. The duo vanished, and the entire building burned to the ground.
The final journey: Pilate is freed; eternal refuge is granted
At sunset, Satan sat on a terrace overlooking Moscow as the philosopher's disciple arrived with a message: the writer deserved peace, not light. Satan agreed to take both the writer and his beloved. The couple was given poisoned wine and died in their basement, which then burned. They flew on black horses with Satan's retinue through the night sky. Satan's companions shed their disguises, revealing their true demonic forms. They came upon Pilate, who had sat for two thousand years under the full moon, unable to finish his conversation with the philosopher. The writer spoke the final words of his novel, freeing Pilate to walk the moonlit path to meet the philosopher at last.
You're free! You're free! He's waiting for you!... Over the black abyss into which the walls had gone, a boundless city lit up... The path of moonlight so long awaited by the procurator stretched right to this garden
Satan then showed the couple their eternal home: a peaceful refuge with a Venetian window and twisting vines, where the writer would sleep soundly and his beloved would watch over him. As they walked toward their new existence, the writer's anxious memory began to fade, and he realized he had freed Pilate just as someone had freed him.
Epilogue: the lingering effects of Wolands visit
Moscow was gripped by rumors of unclean powers, though educated people dismissed them as the work of hypnotists. Black cats were hunted throughout the country. The investigation concluded without finding Satan or his retinue. Various victims of the visit experienced lasting changes: some retired early, others were transferred to new positions, and several died. The poet, now a professor, was haunted each spring by the full moon, experiencing vivid dreams of the ancient execution and visions of the writer and his beloved walking toward the moon. After these dreams, he would sleep peacefully until the next full moon, his memory quiet and untroubled by his past tormentors.