Young David Copperfield is born to his recently widowed mother Clara and almost immediately disowned by his only living relative, Betsey Trotwood, who was expecting a girl. David has an enjoyable life with his mother and their cook-servant, Clara Peggotty. When he is seven, however, he is sent off with Peggotty to visit her family at the seaside and returns that his mother has remarried, to the cruel Edward Murdstone.