Under Western Eyes is a novel about a Russian royalist whose support for the Tsarist regime leads to his being recruited as a spy. When Kirylo Razumov learns that an acquaintance, Victor Haldin, has assassinated a government official, he turns him in. Haldin is executed, and Razumov is sent to Geneva, Switzerland to spy on revolutionary cells operating abroad. Razumov’s indiscretion in revealing his activities to Haldin’s sister leads to severe reprisals. Eventually Razumov returns to Russia and, in self-imposed exiled in a remote village, lives uneventfully amidst the revolutionaries who have forgiven him.

In the hierarchical Russian society, Razumov is on the margins of the elite because he was illegitimate. His mother has since died, and his father, Prince K ——, supports him financially but otherwise ignores him. Despite his precarious semi-privileged class position, Razunov is deeply patriotic. A student at St. Petersburg University, he is academically gifted and dreams of a scholarly life. At this time, however, political unrest is sweeping the nation; other students, such as Haldin, are drawn into the revolutionary currents that fail to engage Razumov.

Soon after Razumov hears the news that a prominent government official has been assassinated, Haldin shows up at his apartment, confesses that he is the assassin, and asks his fellow student to help him escape. Razumov decides that he must set aside personal feelings and ensure that the killer is apprehended. He goes to his father, who contacts the proper authorities; they capture, interrogate, and execute Haldin. The shaken Razumov is then delegated to be an informant for the Crown’s intelligence services. They circulate a story that he is an escaped co-conspirator, and send him to spy on rebels living in Geneva. Among them is Nathalie, Victor’s sister, who believes the story and befriends Razumov; he falls in love with her and confesses his true role. He is seriously injured after some revolutionaries beat him and he is hit by a streetcar. Other group members rescue him from the hospital and then help him to recover and return to Russia, where their comrades aid him in subsisting humbly in a small village.