Resurrection is the story of how a man who raped a girl attempts to redeem himself by trying to save her from gaol when she is convicted of murder many years after. To the consternation of friends, family and society he gave up (well, most of) his privileged life to atone for his crime. Through it Tolstoy decimates the russian establishment (church, state, judiciary, aristocracy) and while at it also one of our most cherished notions - a landowner's right to own land.
The writing is superb and beautiful (it's Tolstoy), preachy and petulant and yet never loses sympathy for the hearts and minds of those he is trying to influence. Tolstoy is here close to the end of his long life and as one who has witnessed vast injustice feels, perhaps righteously so, that he had earned the right to call the powers that be to account. And he does it ruthlessly.
The political, social and economic conditions that led to such exploitation and disenfranchisement of the russian poor are still with us perhaps glaringly more so in the free markets dogma where earning a buck all too often trumps human dignity. They don't write books like this any more. They would not translate well on film.