Narrated by a young novelist, Vanya (Ivan Petrovich), who has just released his first novel (which bears an obvious resemblance to Dostoevsky's own first novel, Poor Folk), it consists of two gradually converging plot lines.

The other plotline focuses on a thirteen-year-old orphan, Nellie, whom Vanya saves from an abusive household by taking her into his apartment, and whose deceased mother's story in some ways parallels that of Natasha.

By telling them her life story, Nellie makes Nikolai's heart soften and he forgives Natasha and removes his curse, and they are reunited.

Natasha's family plans to move from Petersburg, but just before they leave Nellie dies from a chronic heart condition; the little girl makes it clear to Ivan she does not forgive her father for his cruel treatment of her mother.

The Hong Kong film The Insulted and the Injured (豪門孽債), released in 1950, was based on the story, but set in post-World War II Shanghai.

[1] The Japanese film Red Beard (1965) is primarily based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, Akahige Shinryōtan, but it also borrows a subplot from Humiliated and Insulted.