Torn from his loving mother and devoted maid by his wicked step-father, David is abandoned into a cruel boarding school where beatings are the order of the day. When his mother is taken from him, he is sent to work in a bottle-cleaning factory and forced to live with the Micawbers. Fleeing to the protection of his eccentric Aunt Betsy, David at last starts to escape his past and fulfill his potential as a man.

Capturing many of the hardships Dickens himself endured – from abject poverty to cruelty and injustice at school – David Copperfield is a bittersweet but ultimately triumphant and uplifting masterpiece.