[3][4] The film was based on the 1877 novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

Countess Anna Karenina vacillates between her lover, Vronsky, and her husband, Count Karenin.

Anna's love for Vronsky causes her great pain and social pressure.

Anna feels lonely, begins to lose her mind, and eventually throws herself in front of a train.

Lev Anninsky: The typically French direction of Maitre and the performance of Vasilyev, who persistently imitated French actors, must have greatly narrowed the psychological range of this picture.