The film is based on the eponymous novel by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. "All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" - the book begins with these words. At the heart of melodrama there is a tragic story of love and betrayal, a woman, who decides to change her life for the sake of passion. Anna Karenina, unable to renounce her feelings for her beloved man, rejects the worldly morals, trying to protect her right to love. Her husband separates her from her son, her friends turn away from her.