Chaos befalls Moscow when the devil arrives with his disruptive quartet. Meanwhile, a cursed writer called the Master is silenced by the Soviet literary committee for his play about Pontus Pilate. After being taken to a psychiatric hospital, the Master and a proletarian poet named Ivan debate the existence of the devil. Disturbed by her lover's disappearance, Margarita is determined to do whatever it takes to rescue the Master and his manuscript.