David's happy childhood days in the village of Blunderstone with his mother, Clara, and at Great Yarmouth with their servant, Peggotty and her family, are brought to an end by the marriage of Clara to high-minded but brutal Edward Murdstone. He and his sister, Jane, move into the peaceful little house and begin a repressive regime. // Romance is in the air as David secretly gets engaged to his employer's daughter, the beautiful but dizzy Dora Spenlow -- despite Mr Spenlow's outrage. Spenlow's death soon after, however, gives David a chance to marry Dora, and he starts to write his stories and columns for newspapers. But what of the beautiful Agnes Wickfield, his one constant friend?