Judit kills her first child because the father left them. She returns to a previous suitor, Simon. Each year their child dies. The rabbi says this happens because she killed her first child and forbids her to kiss her baby till it gets married.

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.