On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She's Anna Sergeyovna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He's unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair. After a short time, she returns to Saratov, he to Moscow, believing it's good-by forever. All winter he is miserable, enervated, distracted by tristesse. In desperation, he contrives to go to Saratov, surprising her at a concert. Fearing discovery in her home town, she promises to come to Moscow. Will they cast aside reputation to live together, or will theirs be an affair of infrequent encounters in hotel rooms?

While vacationing in Yalta at the turn of the century, Dmitriy Gurov, a middle-aged banker with a family in Moscow, encounters Anna Sergeyevna, a beautiful young woman who walks her small dog along the promenade each day. Upon learning that she is the wife of a petty official and social climber and has grown tired of her husband, Dmitriy confesses that he, too, is unhappily married. What at first seems to be a casual flirtation develops into a serious affair, but the lovers nevertheless part and return to their respective homes. Once back in Moscow, Dmitriy is haunted by Anna's memory. He eventually invents an excuse to leave the city, and, in the hope of meeting her, goes to the provincial town where she lives. He meets her at the theater, and, during a moment away from her husband, Anna admits her lasting love. Later, she begins to visit Dmitriy in Moscow. Both realize that they are doomed to a life of brief secret meetings, stolen away from their families and a society whose ties they are unable, for the present, to break. However, they are hopeful that a solution will eventually be found.