The basis of this carefully plotted story is the desire of John Harmon, an heir to the fortune of a refuse contractor, to disguise his identity till he has formed an opinion of Bella Wilfer, the woman he is supposed to marry under the terms of his father’s will. From the time he finds himself assumed dead, complications abound, but all turns out well in the end. Opinions differ widely as to the ranking of this novel, the last which Dickens completed, but it is undoubtedly a model of his outstanding craftmanship.