So much drama. Unnamed probable bureaucrat meets Nastenka (she only has one name!!!) and falls in love; Nastenka is held captive by her draconian grandmother, wants to marry a guy who used to live with them and lent them Puschkin (sensing a theme here) but he had to go away for a year and promised to marry her when he comes back. He's back and hasn't been to see her, so she assumes he's a dick and she can marry the narrator, who is a very sad and lonely dude.

To be honest the narrator strikes me as an 1848 incel. He is apparently incapable of meeting people, making friends and being with a woman for no particularly clear reason except a long allegorical rant about how he is always lost in his own dream world because he's So Smart and Special. Treats his servant with disregard, wanders around the city people-watching and not interacting. Meets a hot sad girl and is immediately in true love forever, her guy comes back and that's it, his one chance is gone, he's not going to use his new skills to change his life for the better. Also the meeting is super creepy in that he follows her around for a while and then as soon as another dude starts following her he swoops in and white nights the situation.