This novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, with its great synthetic power, bold imagination, and satirical precision, unfolds in three planes: the historical-psychological, centered on the figure of Pontius Pilate - the Man who lacks the moral courage to act according to his conscience; the satirical, targeting the untalented, opportunists, and adventurers from the literary and para-artistic environment of Stalinist Moscow; and the lyrical-dramatic, with a heart-wrenching and exalted love affair between the Master and Margarita.