Part One
Chapter IV

Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky is introduced, a man of wealth and high society, who has shown his interest to marry. one of the Epanchin daughters, Aglaya.
"In the quiet and beautiful flow of General Epanchin's family life, an obvious upheaval was coming." We'll have to see how this plays out. A bit of Totsky's history is told and a rumor about Totsky's future marriage passed Nastasya Filippovna, and she had left for Petersburg to accost him. The experience changed her into someone more dominant, it seems. She prevented the marriage, it looks like. I'm not quite sure how much I should try to pay attention to the character histories here, or what details Dostoevsky wants us to remember.

The plot is building, it seems!
There is some tension between Totsky and Ganya, both having interest in Nastasya. Both suspectful that Ganya wanted to marry for money more than love, and that his soul was "dark, greedy, impatient, [and] nervous", a contract was drawn where Nastasya gave the two friends her word that on her birthday, she would reveal her choice. For some reason, Epanchin planned to gift Nastasya a string of pearls for her birthday, to convince her to marry Ganya, I believe. The Prince opportunely entered in the middle of these affairs, and Epanchin was grateful for the interruption.