On the Kent marshes, a seven-year-old boy called Pip steals food for a shivering convict in a graveyard. It is a small act of terrified kindness. It will determine the rest of his life.

Years later, a London lawyer arrives with extraordinary news: an anonymous benefactor wants to make Pip a gentleman. There is money. There are great expectations. Pip assumes it comes from the wealthy, eccentric Miss Havisham — the woman who stopped all her clocks on her wedding morning and has lived in a rotting dress ever since. He assumes it is connected to Estella, Miss Havisham's cold, beautiful ward, with whom he has been hopelessly in love since he was ten years old.

He is wrong about almost everything.

This is the complete, immersive breakdown of Charles Dickens's greatest novel — every character, every betrayal, every moment of grace and shame. The convict in the graveyard. The woman in the wedding dress. The boy who wanted more than he came from, and what it cost him to find out where the money actually came from.

By the end you will know Pip, Joe, Miss Havisham, Estella and Magwitch the way you know people you have spent time with. Not summarized. Not listed. Lived.