Part 5, Chapters 1-5 Summary

During his travels to Petersburg, Pierre is completely absorbed with fundamental questions: What is right and wrong? What is good and bad? What is life for? What force controls it all? Pierre meets a traveler whose gleaming old eyes draw him in. The stranger knows who Pierre is and introduces himself as a Freemason. He explains to Pierre a new way of thinking that makes sense to him. His name is Osip Alexeevich Bazdyev, one of the most well-known Freemasons and Martinists of his days. Osip Alexeevich leaves him, but Pierre is already a convert.

On reaching Petersburg, Pierre doesn't let anyone know of his arrival, but spends days reading Thomas a Kempis, a book which had been sent to him anonymously. A week after his arrival, a young Polish count, Villarsky, who Pierre knows only slightly from Petersburg...