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.

David is now a young man about town. Deeply in love with the beautiful but rather immature Dora Spenlow, he sets out to woo her. But first he re-acquaints himself with some old friends.