Episode 1

E1

A body pulled from the Thames is identified as young John Harmon, heir to a fortune made in dust-contracting. Bella Wilfer, his wife-to-be by terms of old Harmon's will, goes into mourning though she has never met her fiancé.

Episode 2

E2

Lizzie Hexam, daughter of the corpse robber who found young Harmon's alleged body, is being courted by two desperate characters: Eugene Wrayburn, a dissolute barrister, and Bradley Headstone, a mentally-deranged schoolmaster.

Episode 3

E3

As the rivalry over who will take Lizzie's hand in marriage intensifies, Lizzie flees. Meanwhile, the once-kindly Mr. Boffin has become a tyrant to Rokesmith, who evokes the sympathy of the formerly haughty Bella.

Episode 4

E4

Harmon is planning to claim his dust fortune from the Boffins, who have been playing villains to test Bella's true character. Meanwhile, Eugene has a brush with death via Headstone and decides to do the honorable thing with Lizzie.