An epic BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' last completed novel, interweaving various characters in a complex tale of greed, passion and death in Victorian London. John Harmon (Steven Mackintosh) is betrothed to the beautiful-but-spoilt Bella Wilfer (Anna Friel), who only wishes to marry for money. Then Harmon disappears, and it seems that he has drowned, but he has in fact assumed a new identity and found work with his late father's former employees, the Boffins (Peter Vaughan and Pam Ferris).

Meanwhile, impoverished Lizzy Hexam (Keeley Hawes) must choose between the selfish Eugene Wrayburn (Paul McGann) and the obsessive Bradley Headstone (David Morrissey).