David Copperfield is a boy who experiences the best and the worst of life in 19th-century England. When David’s beloved mother dies, his cruel stepfather mistreats him. David has to suffer fear and loneliness at a barbaric boarding school before later, while still a child, working in a London factory. He meets the handsome deceiver, Steerforth, and the evil hypocrite, Uriah Heep. But he also finds love and protection from the friends he can trust.