Little Oliver Twist has been brought up in the workhouse, where he and the other children are kept in terrible poverty. When Oliver makes the mistake of asking for more food, he is sent away and eventually escapes to London. There he encounters the Artful Dodger, who leads him into the clutches of the sinister Fagin and his gang of pickpockets. Fagin, with his henchman, the thuggish Bill Sykes, does all he can to make a thief out of the little boy - for he has a secret identity that makes him even more valuable than an ordinary criminal. Desperate to remain honest, Oliver finds himself at the mercy of Londons dark and menacing underworld until a possible saviour appears in the most unlikely of places.