Amy receives a proposal of marriage which throws her into confusion, Arthur is taken on as a partner in Daniel Doyce's engineering works, and the French villain Rigaud arrives in London.

Pancks recruits John Chivery to help him solve the mystery that connects the Dorrit family with the House of Clennam, while Arthur proposes to Pet Meagles. Elsewhere, Tattycoram runs away from Twickenham, and Amy resigns herself to a life without the man she loves.