The young Petersburg aristocrat Eugene Onegin, disillusioned with high society, leaves for the countryside. There he meets the poetic and sincere Lensky and the Larin sisters—dreamy Tatyana and the more light-minded Olga.
Tatyana falls in love with Onegin and writes him a confession, but he rejects her, unwilling to bind himself to serious relationships. Later, due to Onegin's frivolous behavior, Lensky challenges him to a duel—and dies.
Years pass. Onegin meets Tatyana again, who is now married and has become a socialite. He falls in love with her, but receives a rejection: Tatyana confesses that she still loves him but remains faithful to her husband.
The novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" is an "encyclopedia of Russian life" and "the most soulful work of Pushkin, the most beloved child of his imagination, and one can point to very few creations in which the personality of the poet is reflected as fully, brightly, and clearly as the personality of Pushkin is reflected in 'Onegin'," as V. G. Belinsky wrote.