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.