The Master and Margarita tells of the devil's visit to Moscow, where he appears as Woland, a foreign expert in black magic, and interweaves this satire with a novel about Pontius Pilate and with the love story between a persecuted writer, the Master, and Margarita.
In Part One, on a bench at Patriarch's Ponds, Woland announces to the editor Berlioz that they are going to cut off his head; shortly afterward, Berlioz slips on the sunflower oil spilled by Annushka and is beheaded by a tram. The poet Ivan Bezdomny, who saw everything, tries to tell the truth and ends up interned in a psychiatric clinic, while Woland's retinue settles into Apartment 50 and holds a session of black magic at the Variety Theater. In chapter 13 the hero appears: the Master, Ivan's neighbor in the clinic, who wrote a novel about Pilate, was attacked by the critics and burned the manuscript.
The chapters set in Yershalaim run interspersed: Yeshua Ha-Notzri's trial in chapter 2, the execution in 16, and the plot against Judas of Kerioth and his death in chapters 25 and 26.
In Part Two, Margarita accepts Azazello's invitation, becomes a witch with a cream, and presides over Satan's ball. As her payment, she receives the Master back, and the burned novel reappears intact. In the end, the two die, leave Moscow with the retinue, and, after the Master frees Pilate with a phrase, they head for an eternal home. In the Epilogue, Ivan, now a professor, dreams of the procurator and of the Master every spring full moon.