Like David Copperfield, this story is narrated in the first person. The narrator, Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, looks back over his life, from his rural boyhood, under the care of a ferocious sister and her mild husband, a blacksmith, to living the life of a gentleman in London, funded by a mysterious benefactor. The mystery solved, his pretentiousness was destroyed, and he then had to cope with some harsh realities, remorseful of the way he had treated those who loved him most. Central to the story is the strange recluse, Miss Havisham, deranged by having been jilted on her wedding day.