Set in a hotel and casino in a German city, the theme of gambling reflects Dostoevsky's own experience of addiction to roulette.

[2] From that time till 1871, when his passion for gambling subsided, he played at Baden-Baden, Homburg, and Saxon-les-Bains frequently, often beginning by winning a small amount of money and losing far more in the end.

[2] He first mentions his interest in gambling in a letter he sent to his first wife's sister on 1 September 1863 describing his initial success:[3] Please do not think that, in my joy over not having lost, I am showing off by saying that I possess the secret of how to win instead of losing.

[2][4] He noted down parts of his story, then dictated them to one of the first stenographers in Russia, the 19 year old Anna Grigorevna Snitkina, who transcribed them and copied it neatly out for him.

[4][1] The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel.

The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman de Grieux and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt.

Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, "Grandmother", he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise.

His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges's hand in marriage.

Alexei only learns the details of the General's and Polina's financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley.

Upon hearing this, Alexei runs out of the room and to the casino where, over a few hours, he wins two hundred thousand florins (100,000 francs) and becomes a rich man.

After learning that the General won't be getting his inheritance, Mademoiselle Blanche leaves for Paris with her mother and seduces Alexei to follow her.

They stay together for almost a month; he allows Mlle Blanche to spend his entire fortune on her own personal expenses, carriages and horses, dinner dances, and a wedding-party.

After getting herself financially secured, Mlle Blanche, desiring an established social status, unexpectedly marries the General, who has followed her to Paris.

In order of appearance: Chapter 1 I can't stand this lackeyishness in the gossip columns of the whole world, and mainly in our Russian newspapers: ... first, the extraordinary magnificence and splendor of the gaming rooms in the roulette towns on the Rhine, and second, the heaps of gold that supposedly lie on the tables ...

The Great Sinner, a loose adaptation, starred Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner under the direction of Robert Siodmak in 1949.