Berlioz and Homeless meet at Patriarch’s Ponds, experience a supernatural vision, and are approached by a mysterious foreign professor who debates atheism, Jesus’s existence, and predicts Berlioz’s death while revealing his role as a historian of black magic.
A flashback depicts Pontius Pilate’s agonised interrogation of Yeshua Ha‑Nozri, his indecision about the death sentence, the high priest’s demand to spare Bar‑Rabban, and the crowd’s selection of Bar‑Rabban, culminating in Pilate confirming Yeshua’s execution.
The foreign professor claims personal witness to Pontius Pilate’s events and promises to reveal a “seventh proof” of the devil; Berlioz decides to find a public telephone, meets a peculiar citizen named Mikhail Alexandrovich, and is fatally struck by a tram, his head severed.
Ivan chases the foreign professor through Moscow, but the professor escapes aided by a strange, oversized cat and the ex‑choirmaster. The pursuit carries Ivan into a shabby flat (no. 13, apt 47) where he intrudes on a bathing woman, takes a candle and a paper icon, and then to the Moscow River where his clothes are stolen, leaving him to wear striped drawers as he continues the hunt toward Griboedov.
Writers convene in Griboedov’s after Berlioz’s death; the restaurant erupts into a chaotic, drunken celebration; a candle‑bearing poet Ivan Nikolaevich Homeless bursts onto the veranda, demanding capture of an unnamed foreign “consultant” whose name begins with “W”, triggering violent upheaval, police intervention and the eventual removal of the poet, a policeman, the doorman Pantelei and a waiter by a truck.
Ivan Nikolaevich “Homeless” is taken to a newly built psychiatric clinic, interrogated by a bearded doctor and his female assistant while Riukhin watches; Homeless delivers a rambling, delusional testimony about a foreign “consultant,” Pontius Pilate, and a mysterious icon, then attempts to summon police, is forcibly sedated with ether and a syringe, and is moved to ward 117. After the clinic episode, Riukhin is driven back toward Moscow, where his mental state deteriorates into nihilistic self‑criticism; he reaches Griboedov’s, is served by Archibald Archibaldovich, drinks alone, and realizes the night’s loss is irreversible.
Styopa Likhodeev, director of the Variety Theatre, awakens disoriented in the infamous cursed apartment No. 50, encounters the foreign professor of black magic (Woland) who arrives at ten a.m. with vodka, caviar and a signed contract for seven Variety performances, learns that his own signature and an advance payment have already been recorded, experiences bizarre supernatural visitors—a black cat, Azazello and a horn‑bearded man—who explain they are Woland’s retinue, and briefly hallucinates a seaside jetty in Yalta before the chapter ends.
Ivan Homeless is taken to a psychiatric clinic, undergoes a full physical and psychological examination, meets the chief Doctor Stravinsky, argues about the mysterious foreign consultant linked to Pontius Pilate, is declared “normal,” and is instructed to write a statement while being urged to stay calm and remain in the clinic.
Chairman Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, overwhelmed by a flood of claims on the late Berlioz’s apartment, meets the mysterious interpreter Koroviev who presents a forged letter from Stepan Likhodeev and proposes renting the sealed apartment to Woland for a large sum; a contract is signed, money and theater passes are exchanged, and Koroviev later phones a tenant, Timofei Kvastsov, blaming Bosoy for foreign‑currency speculation and prompting Bosoy to hide a wad of cash in a ventilation duct. Subsequent mysterious visitors reveal the cash to be counterfeit foreign notes, Bosoy’s briefcase empties, he collapses in a paranoid rage, and the tenants witness his disarray as Kvastsov reports the incident.
Rimsky and Varenukha receive a series of garbled “Yalta” telegrams linking Likhodeev to Woland, discover the Yalta reference is a tavern, send 500 roubles and an envelope to the mysterious source, endure a threatening phone call, are assaulted by two demonic henchmen who seize Varenukha’s briefcase and drag him through the storm to apartment 302‑bis, where a naked red‑haired girl appears and kisses him before he faints.
Ivan’s attempts to write a police statement collapse; a nurse and doctor intervene, giving him an injection that steadies his nerves. He reflects on his earlier terror of Berlioz’s death, the consultant, and Pontius Pilate in a self‑dialogue between his former and current self, then is interrupted by a silent figure on the balcony who whispers “Shhh!”.
Woland and his retinue appear at the Variety Theatre during the intermission, performing a spectacular seance that includes a money‑rain trick, the brutal decapitation and miraculous restoration of the master of ceremonies Georges Bengalsky, and a surreal “ladies’ shop” illusion with endless dresses, shoes and perfumes. After the chaotic finale, Woland vanishes with his armchair, leaving the audience bewildered.
Ivan meets a mysterious patient who admits stealing Praskovya Fyodorovna’s keys, reveals himself as a former museum historian‑translator who won a hundred thousand roubles and wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate. He narrates his failed publication, his secret love with a woman carrying yellow flowers, his mental breakdown, the burning of his manuscript, and the rescue attempt by the woman. He confirms that Ivan’s earlier encounter at Patriarch’s Ponds was a meeting with Satan. He identifies himself as “the Master,” wears a black cap embroidered with an “M,” and explains that he is confined to the clinic because of his Pilate case.
Rimsky, the Variety Theatre director, is terrified by the chaotic street spectacle following the black‑magician’s seance; a phantom phone call warns him, and Varenukha arrives, fabricating a wild tale about Styopa Likhodeev’s “Yalta” escapades. Rimsky notices Varenukha casts no shadow, witnesses a dead‑girl apparition that opens the window with a cock’s crow, and sees Varenukha transform into a pale old man and flee. Escaping the theatre, Rimsky hails a cab, then boards the Leningrad express and vanishes.
Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, after being calmed with an injection in Stravinsky’s clinic, falls into a surreal dream in which a bizarre theatrical tribunal repeatedly demands that he “turn over your currency.” The dream stages a grotesque, all‑male bearded audience seated on a polished floor, a flamboyant master of ceremonies, and a succession of “numbers” featuring Sergei Gerardovich Dunchil (who is accused of hoarding 18 000 $ and a valuable necklace in Kharkov), the actor Savva Potapovich Kurolesov performing a distorted Pushkin excerpt, and the shy citizen Nikolai Kanavkin who confesses a smaller sum hidden with his aunt. Each character is mocked for concealing money, and the theatre audience erupts in shouts, whistles, and absurd legal‑like pronouncements. The dream then dissolves into a chaotic kitchen scene where cooks hand out soup and bread while urging the audience to surrender their hidden cash; the nurse Praskovya Fyodorovna appears, administers an injection, and the dream collapses. Nikanor awakens, the injection steadies him, but his cries trigger an alarm that spreads to adjacent rooms (118, 119, 120), waking other patients including the unnamed master and Ivan. The chapter ends with Nikanor’s body relaxing, the morning light breaking, and a final dream of Bald Mountain being cordoned off.
The execution of Yeshua Ha‑Nozri and two other condemned men unfolds on Bald Mountain under a massive Roman cordon; Matthew Levi observes, unsuccessfully tries to intervene, curses God, a storm breaks out, the centurion orders the troops to withdraw, Levi temporarily rescues the dead bodies before they disappear.
Vassily Stepanovich, the Variety’s senior bookkeeper, leads a chaotic investigation into the disappearance of the theatre’s director, deputy, and administrator following the cursed seance; he confronts police, a mysterious dog (Ace of Diamonds), a missing contract for the magician, a bizarre empty suit in the Commission, and is ultimately arrested after presenting suspicious foreign cash at the financial sector.
Maximilian Andreevich Poplavsky arrives in Moscow to claim his nephew’s apartment, encounters Woland’s magical bureaucracy (the cat, Koroviev, Azazello) which confiscates his passport and forces him out; he hides in a closet, watches the cursed apartment No. 50 being visited by the barman Andrei Fokich Sokov, a maid, a mysterious girl in a lacy apron, and the foreign magician (Woland) who stages a surreal banquet with swords, a gold dish and predictions of the barman’s imminent death; the barman subsequently suffers a head injury, receives bandages, visits Professor Kuzmin, learns of a foretold death in nine months, and becomes entangled in further bizarre events involving a kitten, leeches, and a mysterious nurse.
Margarita, anguished by the Master's disappearance, has a foreboding dream, searches his hidden belongings, learns of the stolen head of the deceased, converses with a red‑haired stranger who reveals himself as Azazello, receives a golden ointment box and an invitation to meet a mysterious foreigner, and finally hurries away from the garden to obey the summons.
Margarita uses Azazello’s cream, is physically transformed, writes a farewell note to her husband, receives Azazello’s telephone orders, and escapes Moscow by flying on a broom, leaving behind Natasha and the bewildered neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich.
Margarita continues her nocturnal flight, violently demolishes the Dramlit House while obsessively hunting the critic Latunsky, encounters a frightened boy and a drunken river‑bank stranger, flies alongside Natasha and a hog in a comic duel, traverses surreal skies, reaches a moonlit river, is greeted by naiads, frogs, a goat‑legged host and a magical car, and finally sets course back toward Moscow.
Margarita is whisked away in the flying car, meets Azazello at a deserted cemetery, is transported to apartment 302‑bis on Sadovaya Street and then to the cursed flat No. 50 where Koroviev reveals that she must become the hostess of Woland’s Spring Ball of the Full Moon; she accepts. She is led into a tiny, sulfur‑smelling chamber where Woland, Azazello, the witch Hella and the cat‑demon Behemoth are gathered around a chessboard, witnesses a bizarre, alive chess game, and sees Woland’s magical globe that displays a miniature, burning village.
Margarita, now crowned queen, presides over Woland’s grotesque Great Ball. She and her retinue endure a torrent of bizarre, often damned guests—Monsieur Jacques and his spouse, Madame Tofana, Frieda, various nobles, and endless hordes—while the surreal festivities shift from orchestral polonaise to jazz, multiple opulent rooms, and chaotic transformations. The climax arrives when Woland appears with a severed head, offers a toast to a trembling baron, drinks, and transforms; Margarita drinks a mysterious cup, the ball collapses, and she returns to the modest room of the jeweller’s widow, exiting through a slightly opened door.
Margarita forces Woland to bring the Master back to life, secures a wish that Frieda’s handkerchief no longer be given to her, and after a chaotic evening in Woland’s bedroom the whole retinue leaves the room, encounters a naked man on the doorstep and a black car with a mysterious passenger, while a side vignette recounts Annushka the Plague’s midnight chase after a lost horseshoe.
Pilate (the procurator) is visited by a drenched foreign guest who turns out to be the head of his secret service. Their dialogue reveals Pilate’s concerns about the city’s mood, the disposition of Bar‑Rabban, and a plot to kill Judas of Kiriath and frame the high priest. Pilate orders the guest to silently remove and bury the three executed men and to protect Judas that night, giving him a sealed bag of money for the mission.
The three executed men are buried in a solitary ravine north of Jerusalem; rings are placed on their fingers (Yeshua 1 notch, Dysmas 2, Gestas 3); Aphranius reports Judas of Kiriath was slain near Gethsemane, his purse of 30 tetradrachmas was taken, and he will search the olive‑press area; Pilate pardons Aphranius, rewards the burial detachment, reprimands the sleuths who lost Judas, summons Matthew Levi who refuses to sit, receives his knife and a parchment, declines Pilate’s offer to work in his library, and finally falls asleep on the balcony with his dog Banga.
Police raid apartment 50, confront Woland’s retinue; a chaotic gunfight revives Behemoth, fire reveals Baron Meigel’s corpse, and the cat escapes as three men and a naked woman flee.
Koroviev (as the long‑citizen) and the cat‑like Behemoth cause a ruckus in a Smolensky market currency shop, eat mandarins, chocolate and herring, set fire with benzene, flee, re‑appear on the boulevard by Griboedov’s aunt’s house, enter the restaurant on its veranda, are examined by Sofya Pavlovna who demands identification, give fictitious writer names, are seated by the free‑booting proprietor Archibald Archibaldovich who serves them lavishly, are overheard by journalist Boba Kandalupsky, then three gunmen open fire, the duo melt into air, a pillar of fire engulfs the restaurant and spreads to the Griboedov building, forcing the writers to flee while Archibald calmly departs with two balyk logs.
Woland and Azazello confer on a high terrace about the Master and Margarita; Matthew Levi (the former tax‑collector) appears, pleading for the Master’s release and for his beloved Margarita to be taken with him. Woland orders Azazello to “fly to them and arrange it all.” Koroviev and Behemoth arrive with the spoils from the Griboedov fire, report their futile looting, and are dismissed by Woland, who declares no further orders. A massive black storm then sweeps over Moscow, plunging the city into complete darkness and erasing its buildings as Woland vanishes into the gloom.
The Master and Margarita are rescued from their basement by Azazello, are poisoned and then revived with Falemian wine, set fire to the room and escape Moscow on supernatural black horses, fly over the city, land at the clinic, say farewell to Ivan, and disappear as a storm engulfs the city.
Woland’s entourage assembles on Sparrow Hills, forces a supernatural “farewell” on the Master and Margarita; a magical whistle unleashes chaotic destruction across Moscow, and the demonic cavalcade departs, causing the entire city to vanish beneath a black shroud.
The Master finishes his unfinished novel, thereby freeing the imprisoned Pontius Pilate; the surrounding mountains collapse, revealing a limitless city of glowing idols and a moonlit pathway that the Master, Margarita, and the faithful dog follow toward an eternal, peaceful home; Woland and his retinue depart, leaving the couple in their promised refuge.
The epilogue records the police conclusion that Koroviev’s hypnotist gang was responsible for the murders, arson, mass madness and the slaughter of about a hundred black cats after Woland’s departure, and then traces the later lives of numerous secondary characters and Professor Ivan Ponyrev’s recurring full‑moon visions.