Pip is a young orphan boy raised roughly by his sister in the lonely marsh country, his world small and his prospects smaller, until two strange encounters change everything. First, a desperate escaped convict looms out of the graveyard mist and demands his help. Then he's summoned to a decaying mansion ruled by the eerie, jilted Miss Havisham and her beautiful, icy ward, Estella, who teaches Pip to feel ashamed of all he is. When a secret benefactor suddenly raises him toward wealth and the life of a gentleman, Dickens's masterful 1861 novel sets a humble boy chasing expectations that may cost him dearly.