The main action of the book takes place in Moscow in the 1930s, where Satan manifests himself in the guise of a mysterious magician named Woland, accompanied by a motley crew that targets upstarts and other corrupt people. The young and enthusiastic poet, Ivan Biezdomny (whose name means homeless) tries in vain to pursue and capture this crew, then to warn the authorities of its diabolical nature, but only succeeds in getting himself thrown into an insane asylum.
The character of the Master, an embittered author, in despair at the denigration of his novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ, turns away from the world, including from his beloved Margarita, and after a period of vagrancy, is locked up in the same insane asylum as Ivan Biezdomny.
Another action takes place in Jerusalem, under the government of the procurator Pontius Pilate. This is the story that Woland tells Berlioz and which finds echoes in the pages of the Master's novel.
Thirdly, Satan gives a midnight ball, which coincides with the night of Good Friday. He makes an offer to Marguerite, which she accepts: to become a witch endowed with supernatural powers for the duration of the ball, and to serve as Satan's "Mistress of the house" to receive his guests.
While she learns to fly and to control her unbridled passions -- not without taking violent revenge on the literary bureaucrats who have condemned her lover to despair -- and she takes with her her servant Natasha, Marguerite enters naked into the world of the night, flies over the black forests and rivers of Mother Russia, bathes, and purified, returns to Moscow to be the host of Satan's great ball. Standing at his side, she greets the most infamous characters in human history as they pour out of the gates of hell in numbers.
Satan offers to grant her dearest wish. She chooses to reunite with her lover the Master and live with him in misery and love.
