Style the first image of a post

So here’s my problem:

On my front page each individual post is styled in two columns (divs), left for the category, date, etc…and in the right is the title and text of the post.

I want to take the first image in the post’s content and put it (resized to fit) in the left column.

While, ideally, not showing any pictures in the right (content) column (unless/until you’re on that post’s single page).

Every plugin/hack I’ve found so far claiming to do something along these lines has broken my page.

Can anyone vouch for something that would work? An elegant code solution would be best, but my knowledge of writing functions from scratch is really limited.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!