Summary
Woland and Azazello are sitting on the stone terrace of an old Moscow house, looking over the city as the sun sets. Matthew Levi, who has been sent by Yeshua, appears on the terrace and asks that Woland to give the master and Margarita peace, rather than the light. Woland agrees, Matthew Levi leaves, and Koroviev and Behemoth, who still appears as a fat man, arrive. Woland tells them that one last storm is coming to complete things, and the storm arrives, darkening the skies over Moscow.

As Matthew Levi appears on the terrace, the master and Margarita awake and talk in their basement. She tells a disbelieving master that they were really at Satan’s, and she struck a deal with him and is now a witch. Azazello appears to say Woland has invited the couple to go on an excursion with him. They agree to go. Azazello takes a bottle of the same wine Pilate had drunk and pours it into glasses. The wine is poisoned, and upon it both the master and Margarita fall ill and die. Azazello then pours some drops of the wine into Margarita’s mouth to revive her. Margarita helps give the master some wine, and he too revives. The couple leaves after Azazello starts a fire in the basement, and the three jump on their steeds and fly over Moscow. The master and Margarita go to the clinic to visit Ivan and say farewell. Margarita kisses Ivan and tells him, “[E]verything will be as it should be with you.” The couple leave, and Praskovya Fyodorovna, the nurse, reveals that the master has just died in room 118.

Master, Margarita, and Azazello join Woland, Koroviev, and Behemoth on their horses, on a hill overlooking Moscow. As the master gives one last look on Moscow, Behemoth and Koroviev give their own farewell whistles. Woland cries “It’s time!” and the six steeds and their riders depart in the sky, with Margarita looking back to see nothing of Moscow.

The horses tire as evening settles on the earth and night emerges. Koroviev changes into a knight, and Woland explains that the knight is here because he made an unfortunate joke about light and darkness on a night “when accounts are settled.” Behemoth is transformed into a thin youth, and Azazello’s face turns white and cold, taking on the visage of “the demon of the waterless desert.” The master’s hair turns white, and Woland’s horse becomes “a mass of darkness.” Eventually the riders stop their horses near Pilate, who sits in an armchair on a desolate summit, accompanied by his dog, who like Pilate looks up at the moon. Pilate has slept on his chair for 2000 years, but he and his dog, Banga, are overcome by insomnia during full moons. Pilate always dreams that he wants to walk with Yeshua on a path in the moonlight, but can’t reach the path, so only talks to himself, cursing his immortality and fame. The master shouts to Pilate that he is free, and Yeshua waits for him. The mountains collapse, leaving just the armchair, and a city arises, with the moonlight path shining on it. Pilate and Banga rush down this path. Woland bids farewell to the master and Margarita, the scene disappears, and dawn breaks just after the midnight moon. The couple walk over a small stone bridge along a path, and Margarita points to the master’s eternal home, where he will sleep and she will watch over him.

Analysis
Woland and Azazello’s retreat from Moscow indicates that the novel is heading toward its denouement. The crucial events...