The beautiful Nell is a thirteen-year-old orphan who lives with her grandfather in a London bric-a-brac shop. Worried about his charge's future, the old man secretly gambles at night in order to provide an inheritance for her, but finally loses the little he has and is evicted from the shop by the evil hunchback and loan shark Daniel Quilp, suffering a breakdown as a result. Forced to leave the city, the young girl is left to take care of her grandfather and protect herself from the scheming villains who are hot on their heels.

Dickens's fourth novel, initially serialized in his magazine Master Humprey's Clock between 1840 and 1841, The Old Curiosity Shop proved to be a huge hit on publication and is still regarded as one of its author's major works, featuring one of his best-loved and most memorable heroines.