In which we become acquainted with the industrious and wooden-legged Mr Silas Wegg, whose halfpenny ballads and peculiar corner stall form a humble yet steadfast fixture of London life. A curious acquaintance, Mr Boffin, arrives with an unusual proposal that promises to entwine their lives in a struggle with the demands of education and literary endeavour, set against the quaint and contrasting comforts of Boffin’s Bower.