In the work - two storylines, each of which develops independently. The first action takes place in Moscow over several May days (days of the spring full moon) in the 30s. XX century, the second action also takes place in May, but in the city of Yershalaim (Jerusalem) almost two thousand years ago - at the very beginning of a new era. The novel is built in such a way that the chapters of the main storyline are interspersed with the chapters that make up the second storyline, and these insertion chapters are either chapters from the master’s novel, or the story of an eyewitness to the events of Woland.

On one of the hottest May days in Moscow, someone Woland appears, posing as a specialist in black magic, but in fact he is Satan. He is accompanied by a strange retinue: a pretty witch vampire Gella, the cheeky type of Koroviev, also known as Bassoon, the gloomy and ominous Azazello and the cheerful fat hippo Behemoth, who for the most part appears before the reader in the guise of a black cat of incredible size.

The first to meet Woland at Patriarch Ponds are the editor of the thick art magazine Mikhail Aleksandrovich Berlioz and the poet Ivan Bezdomny, who wrote an anti-religious poem about Jesus Christ. Woland intervenes in their conversation, claiming that Christ really existed. As evidence that there is something beyond human control, Woland predicts that a Russian Komsomol girl will cut off the head of Berlioz. In the eyes of shocked Ivan, Berlioz immediately falls under the tram, which is controlled by a Komsomol girl, and his head is cut off. Ivan unsuccessfully tries to persecute Woland, and then, having appeared in Massolit (Moscow Literary Association), so confusedly sets out the sequence of events that he is taken to the suburban psychiatric clinic of Professor Stravinsky, where he meets the main character of the novel - the master.

Woland, arriving at apartment number 50 of house 302 bis on Sadovaya Street, which the late Berlioz occupied with the director of the theater Variete Stepan Likhodeev, and finding the latter in a state of severe hangover, presents him with a contract signed by him, Likhodeev, for Woland's performance in the theater, and then drives him away from the apartment, and Styopa inexplicably ends up in Yalta.

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, chairman of the Housing Partnership at No. 302 bis, arrives at Apartment No. 50 and finds Koroviev, who asks to rent this apartment to Wolanda, since Berlioz died and Likhodeev was in Yalta. After much persuasion, Nikanor Ivanovich agrees and receives from Koroviev, in addition to the fee stipulated by the contract, 400 rubles, which he hides in ventilation. On the same day, they came to Nikanor Ivanovich with an arrest warrant for storing the currency, since these rubles turned into dollars. The stunned Nikanor Ivanovich falls into the same clinic of Professor Stravinsky.

At this time, the financial director Variete Rimsky and the administrator Varenukha unsuccessfully try to find the disappeared Likhodeev by telephone and are perplexed, receiving from him telegrams from Yalta asking him to send money and confirm his identity, since he was abandoned in Yalta by the hypnotist Woland. Having decided that this is Likhodeev’s stupid joke, Rimsky, having collected telegrams, sends Varenukha to take them “where necessary”, but Varenukha fails to do this: Azazello and the cat Behemoth, grabbing him by the arms, deliver Varenukha to apartment No. 50, and from a kiss the naked witch Gella Varenukha is deprived of feelings.

In the evening, a performance with the participation of the great magician Woland and his retinue begins on the stage of the Variete Theater. A bassoon with a pistol shot causes a monetary rain in the theater, and the whole hall catches the falling pieces of gold. Then a “ladies' shop” opens on the stage, where any woman from among those sitting in the hall can dress for free from head to toe. A queue is lined up right there, however, at the end of the performance, the chervonets turn into pieces of paper, and everything acquired in the "ladies' shop" disappears without a trace, forcing gullible women to rush along the streets in the same underwear.

After the performance, Rimsky lingers in his office, and to him is turned Gella's kiss into a vampire Varenukha. Seeing that he does not cast a shadow, Roman is mortally scared and tries to run away, but the vampire Gella comes to the aid of Varenukha. With a hand covered in cadaveric spots, she tries to open the window bolt, and Varenukha guards at the door. Meanwhile, morning comes, the first cry of a rooster is heard, and the vampires disappear. Without losing a minute, Rimsky instantly turned gray in a taxi, rushing to the station and leaving by express train to Leningrad.

Meanwhile, Ivan Bezdomny, having met with the Master, tells him about how he met with the strange foreigner who killed Misha Berlioz. The master explains to Ivan that he met on the Patriarchs with Satan, and tells Ivan about himself. His beloved was called his beloved Margarita. Being a historian by training, he worked in one of the museums, when suddenly he unexpectedly won a huge sum - one hundred thousand rubles. He left his work in the museum, rented two rooms in the basement of a small house in one of the Arbat lanes and began to write a novel about Pontius Pilate. The romance was almost finished when he accidentally met Margarita on the street, and love struck both of them instantly. Margarita was married to a worthy man, lived with him in a mansion on the Arbat, but did not love him. Every day she came to the master. The affair was drawing to a close, and they were happy. Finally, the novel was completed, and the master took it to the magazine, but they refused to print it there. However, an excerpt from the novel was printed, and soon several devastating articles about the novel, signed by critics Ariman, Latunsky and Lavrovich, appeared in the newspapers. And then the master felt that he was getting sick. One night he threw a novel into the oven, but a runaway, alarmed, Margarita grabbed the last stack of sheets from the fire. She left, taking the manuscript with her in order to say goodbye to her husband and return to her lover forever in the morning, but a quarter of an hour after she left, they knocked on the window - telling Ivan his story, in this place the Master lowers her voice to a whisper - and a few months later, on a winter night, when he came to his home, he found his rooms occupied and went to a new suburban clinic, where he has been living for the fourth month, without a name and surname, just a patient from room 118.

This morning Margarita wakes up with the feeling that something is about to happen. Wiping away her tears, she goes over the sheets of the charred manuscript, looks at the photo of the master, and then goes for a walk in the Alexander Garden. Here Azazello sits down to her and informs her that a certain noble foreigner invites her to visit. Margarita accepts the invitation because she hopes to learn at least something about the Master. In the evening of the same day Margarita, stripping naked, rubs the body with the cream that Azazello gave her, becomes invisible and flies out the window. Flying past the writer's house, Margarita arranges a rout in the apartment of a critic of Latunsky, who, in her opinion, killed the master. Then Margarita meets Azazello and leads her to apartment No. 50, where she meets Woland and the rest of his retinue. Woland asks Margarita to be the queen at his ball. In return, he promises to fulfill her desire.

At midnight, the spring full moon ball begins - the great ball at Satan, to which scammers, executioners, molesters, and murderers — criminals of all times and nations — are invited; men are in tailcoats, women are naked. For several hours, the naked Margarita greets the guests, exposing her hand and knee for a kiss. Finally, the ball is over, and Woland asks Margarita what she wants as a reward for being the hostess of the ball. And Margarita asks immediately to return the master to her. Then the master appears in hospital attire, and Margarita, after conferring with him, asks Woland to return them to a small house on the Arbat, where they were happy.

In the meantime, a Moscow institution is beginning to take an interest in strange events taking place in the city, and they all line up in a logically clear whole: the mysterious foreigner Ivan Bezdomny, the black magic session in Variety, the dollars of Nikanor Ivanovich, and the disappearance of Rimsky and Likhodeev. It becomes clear that all this is the work of the same gang, led by a mysterious magician, and all traces of this gang lead to apartment number 50.

We turn now to the second storyline of the novel. In the palace of Herod the Great, the Judean Procurator Pontius Pilate interrogates the arrested Yeshua Ga-Nozri, who was sentenced by the Sanhedrin to insult Caesar's authority, and this sentence is sent for approval to Pilate. Interrogating the arrested, Pilate understands that before him is not the robber who incited the people to disobedience, but a wandering philosopher who preaches the kingdom of truth and justice. However, the Roman prosecutor cannot let go of the man who is accused of a crime against Caesar, and confirms the death sentence. Then he turns to the high priest of the Jewish Caif, who, in honor of the upcoming Easter holiday, can release one of the four criminals sentenced to death; Pilate asks for it to be Ga-Nozri. However, Kaifa refuses him and releases the robber Var-Ravvan. At the top of Lysaya Gora there are three crosses on which the convicted are crucified. After the crowd of onlookers who accompanied the procession to the place of execution returned to the city, only the disciple Yeshua Levi Matvey, a former tax collector, remains on Lysaya Gora. The executioner stabs the tormented convicts, and a sudden downpour falls on the mountain.

The procurator calls Afraniya, the head of his secret service, and instructs him to kill Judah from Kiriath, who received money from the Sanhedrin for allowing him to arrest Yeshua Ga-Nozri in his house. Soon, a young woman named Niza allegedly accidentally meets Judah in the city and makes a date out of town in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is attacked by unknown people, stabbed him with a knife, and removed his wallet with money. After some time, Afranius reports to Pilate that Judah was stabbed to death and a sack of money — thirty tetradrachms — was thrown into the high priest’s house.

Levi Matvey is brought to Pilate, who shows the prosecutor the parchment with the Ga-Nozri's sermons. “The most serious vice is cowardice,” reads the prosecutor.

But back to Moscow. At sunset, on the terrace of one of the Moscow buildings, they say goodbye to the city of Woland and his retinue. Suddenly Levi Matvey appears, who offers Woland to take the master to himself and reward him with peace. “And why don’t you take him to your light?” - asks Woland. “He did not deserve the light, he deserved peace,” Levi Matvey answers. After some time, Azazello comes to the house to Margarita and the master and brings a bottle of wine - a gift from Woland. After drinking wine, the master and Margarita fall without feelings; at the same moment the turmoil in the house of sorrow begins: the patient died from room number 118; and at that very moment in a mansion on Arbat the young woman suddenly turns pale, clutching her heart, and falls to the floor.

Magic black horses carry away Woland, his retinue, Margarita and the Master. “Your novel was read,” Woland tells the Master, “and I would like to show you your hero.” About two thousand years he sits on this site and sees in a dream a moonlit road and wants to go along it and talk with a wandering philosopher. You can now end the novel with one phrase. ” “Free!” He is waiting for you!" - the master shouts, and over the black abyss an immense city lights up with a garden, to which the lunar road stretches, and the procurator quickly runs along this road.

"Farewell!" - screams Woland; Margarita and the master go over the bridge over the stream, and Margarita says: "Here is your eternal home, in the evening those who you love will come to you, and at night I will protect your sleep."

And in Moscow, after Woland left her, the investigation in the criminal gang case continues for a long time, however, the measures taken to capture her do not give results. Experienced psychiatrists conclude that members of the gang were unprecedented strength hypnotists. Several years pass, the events of those May days begin to be forgotten, and only Professor Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, the former poet Homeless, every year, only the spring festive full moon comes, appears on the Patriarch's Ponds and sits on the same bench where he first met Woland then, after walking along the Arbat, he returns home and sees the same dream in which both Margarita and the master, and Yeshua Ga-Nozri, and the cruel fifth prosecutor of Judea, the rider Pontius Pilate, come to him.