This film is the record of the stage performance in 1953 by the cast of the Moscow Art Theater. Based on the eponymous book by Leo Tolstoy. Anna Arkadievna Karenina is 20 years younger than her tough husband Aleksei Aleksandrovich Karenin. Anna meets the handsome Count Vronsky, and they fall in love with each other, and make a baby. But their happiness is under the pressure from Anna's husband, who is obstructing their divorce. The lovers are trying to escape from the society that is not accepting their love. But Count Vronsky does not want to abandon his social life. Anna becomes traumatized and depressed by the unbearable conflict with reality.