Arthur befriends Amy Dorrit and involves himself in her family's affairs. If, as he suspects, his family have something to do with their ruin, the least he can do is pay off her brother's debt and give him the chance to start again. Arthur himself is planning to start again with a new job, and perhaps a renewed love for childhood sweetheart Flora Casby.

Flintwinch taunts Arthur's mother about the mystery at the heart of the House of Clennam, while Amy discovers that 'a gentleman' has paid off her brother's debts, and Arthur is invited to Twickenham to renew his acquaintance with the lovely Pet Meagles.

Amy receives a proposal of marriage which throws her into confusion, Arthur is taken on as a partner in Daniel Doyce's engineering works, and the French villain Rigaud arrives in London.

Amy accompanies her sister Fanny to meet Mrs Merdle, queen bee of London society. Meanwhile, Rigaud comes into possession of the Clennam papers, and Chivery the turnkey asks Arthur to put in a word for young John with Amy.

Pancks recruits John Chivery to help him solve the mystery that connects the Dorrit family with the House of Clennam, while Arthur proposes to Pet Meagles. Elsewhere, Tattycoram runs away from Twickenham, and Amy resigns herself to a life without the man she loves.

Rigaud introduces himself to the House of Clennam, while Arthur is best man at Pet's marriage to Henry Gowan. Pancks concludes his investigation into the Dorrit family's long incarceration in the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison, and Arthur and Amy break momentous news to Mr Dorrit.

Mr Dorrit is released from the Marshalsea after more than twenty years, and takes his family abroad to reinvent themselves as members of society. Miss Wade commissions Rigaud to spy on Pet and Henry Gowan, and he takes the chance to follow the Dorrits abroad and find out what connects them to the House of Clennam.

The Dorrits arrive in Venice, and Fanny renews an old acquaintance with Edmund Sparkler and his redoubtable mother Mrs Merdle. Meanwhile, Amy makes a friend in Pet Gowan, united through their mutual affection for Arthur, and Rigaud scents a deeper connection between the Dorrits and the House of Clennam.

Fanny has stolen the heart of Edmund Sparkler, whose mother, Mrs Merdle, is determined to separate them once and for all. Meanwhile, Merdle's Bank is besieged by investors, and Arthur is worried when he sees a suspicious French stranger - the villainous Rigaud - at his mother's house.