A baby is born in the humble backstreets of a nameless town. His mother, who is not wearing a wedding ring, dies soon after the birth and her child is given into the care of the local orphanage. Hardly an unusual story, and yet young Oliver Twist is by no means an ordinary boy. He will escape the drudgery of the workhouse, travel to London and be initiated into to a gang of petty crooks. He will find himself at the centre of a criminal plot and an infamous murder, the object of hope, fear, despair and unexpected goodness. This is the story peopled by thieves and prostitutes, coloured by violence and neglect, and redeemed by the innocence of one boy searching for a home.