Part 6, Chapters 1-7 Summary

It is 1809. Prince Andrew Bolkonsky has spent two years in the country away from the war. He has been reforming his estates and turning serfs into free cultivators, who pay rent. As he is traveling between estates one day, he spies an old oak tree, which seems to say to him that his life is over, that there is nothing new or hopeful to come for him. Prince Andrew's duties as trustee of his son's Ryazan's estates take him to an interview with the marshal of the district, Count Rostov. He has to stay the night at the Rostov's in order to see the count. He overhears Natasha talking to Sonya about the moon and something is stirred in his soul.

Andrew leaves the next day without speaking with the women in the household. Six weeks later, he passes...