The Trial Begins is narrated by a writer whose home is being searched by the Soviet police. The officers find his story about the protagonist and, dissatisfied with the writers work, send him to Siberia.

The protagonist of The Trial Begins is Vladimir Petrovich Globov. He is a prosecutor and an ardent follower of Joseph Stalin. Vladimir's principles are called in to question when his wife Marina is given an abortion by a Jewish doctor and his son Seryozha is sent to a prison in Siberia.

Dr. Rabinovich is the Jewish doctor who performs Marina's abortion.

Yury Karlinsky is a defense attorney, the man with whom Marina had an affair, and the father of the aborted fetus.

After Seryozha's arrest, Globov is visited frequently by his ex-mother-in-law Ekaterina, who wants her grandson to be released.

Katya is a friend of Seryozha's, and she shares his desires for a utopian society. She protests his arrest and dies after being trampled by a crowd.