An escaped convict named Magwitch threatens young Pip in a graveyard and demands he bring food and a file.

On Christmas morning, Pip secretly delivers stolen food and a file to Magwitch at the old Battery.

Pip visits Miss Havisham at Satis House for the first time and meets her cold, beautiful adopted daughter Estella.

Lawyer Mr. Jaggers arrives at the Gargery house and announces that Pip has a secret benefactor and great expectations.

Pip says goodbye to Joe and Biddy and departs for London by coach to begin his new life as a gentleman.

Pip arrives at Barnard's Inn and recognizes his new roommate Herbert Pocket as the boy he once fought at Miss Havisham's.

Pip's sister is found beaten and unconscious on the kitchen floor and is left permanently disabled.

An aged Magwitch appears at Pip's London apartment and reveals himself as Pip's secret benefactor.

Pip confronts Miss Havisham for misleading him about his benefactor and learns Estella is engaged to Bentley Drummle.

Miss Havisham's ancient wedding dress catches fire and Pip smothers the flames, but she is severely burned.

Herbert, Pip, and Startop row Magwitch down the River Thames in a bid to smuggle him out of England.

A police boat intercepts the escape attempt; Magwitch and Compeyson struggle in the river, Compeyson drowns, and Magwitch is arrested.

Pip visits the dying Magwitch in prison and tells him that his daughter Estella is alive and beautiful; Magwitch dies.

Joe arrives in London to nurse a gravely ill Pip back to health and quietly pays off his debts.

Pip visits the ruins of Satis House and finds Estella wandering among them; they walk away hand-in-hand.

Great Expectations follows orphan Pip from his terrifying encounter with escaped convict Magwitch in a graveyard to his transformation into a London gentleman funded by a mysterious benefactor. Pip's visits to the eccentric Miss Havisham and her beautiful adopted daughter Estella ignite his class ambitions and his heart. When lawyer Jaggers delivers news of Pip's inheritance, Pip moves to London, befriends Herbert Pocket, and immerses himself in upper-class life. The shocking return of Magwitch reveals the true and troubling source of Pip's fortune, shattering his assumptions about Miss Havisham and Estella. As Pip struggles to help Magwitch escape England, a dramatic confrontation on the Thames ends in Compeyson's death and Magwitch's arrest, costing Pip his inheritance. After illness, debt, and Joe's quiet generosity, Pip finds redemption in honest work and a final reunion with a changed Estella.

The headline events that drive Pip's journey from orphan to gentleman and back.

Soldiers find Magwitch and Compeyson fighting in a ditch; Magwitch confesses to stealing the Gargery food, protecting Pip from suspicion.

Mrs. Joe announces that Pip will visit the wealthy Miss Havisham, an arrangement made by Uncle Pumblechook.

After meeting Estella, Pip asks Biddy to help further his education so he can become less common.

Miss Havisham declares Pip old enough to apprentice under Joe; Joe visits Satis House and she gives him 25 guineas.

Pip is officially indentured to Joe as a blacksmith's apprentice at the town hall.

Orlick quarrels with Joe over a half-holiday; Mrs. Joe intervenes loudly and Joe is forced to fight Orlick in the forge.

Pip visits Miss Havisham as a young apprentice and learns that Estella has gone to study abroad in France.

Joe makes an awkward visit to Pip's London lodgings to relay Miss Havisham's wish to see Pip.

Pip escorts Estella from London to Richmond, where a wealthy woman plans to introduce her to eligible suitors.

Pip and Herbert join the Finches of the Grove, spending recklessly and accumulating mounting debts together.

Mrs. Joe dies and Pip travels back to his hometown to attend her funeral.

Biddy tells Pip that his dying sister's final whispered words were Joe, Pardon, and Pip.

Pip secretly arranges Herbert's business partnership through Wemmick, spending half his annual allowance anonymously.

Orlick lures Pip to the old marshes and attempts to murder him; Herbert arrives with local men and rescues Pip.

Joe quietly leaves London after paying Pip's debts; Pip returns home to propose to Biddy but discovers she has married Joe.

This pool traces the secondary events that frame Pip's rise and fall, from his indenture as a blacksmith's apprentice to his life of mounting debt as a London gentleman. Pip's world is shaped by the people around him — the quarrelsome Orlick, the awkward but devoted Joe, and the ambitious Herbert Pocket — whose lives intersect with his own in significant ways. Mrs. Joe's attack, her funeral, and the discovery of her final words mark the unraveling of Pip's home life even as he grows increasingly distant from it. In London, Pip joins Herbert in reckless spending while secretly engineering Herbert's financial future behind the scenes. The pool ends with Joe's quiet act of generosity in paying Pip's debts and Pip's discovery that Joe and Biddy have married, forcing him to accept a new life abroad.

The supporting events that shape Pip's world at home and in London.

Pip tells elaborate lies about Miss Havisham to his sister and Pumblechook, then privately confesses the truth to Joe.

A stranger at a local bar secretly stirs his drink with a file, sending a silent signal to Pip connected to Magwitch.

Pip fights Herbert Pocket in Miss Havisham's courtyard in a spontaneous bout; afterward, Estella allows Pip to kiss her cheek.

Pip confides to Biddy his wish to become a gentleman for Estella's sake; Biddy warns that Estella is not worth the trouble.

Pip arrives in London and visits grim Newgate Prison for the first time, leaving with a sickening impression of the city.

Pip meets fellow students Bentley Drummle and Startop at the Pocket household, taking an immediate dislike to the oafish Drummle.

Herbert reveals that Miss Havisham's conman fiancé worked alongside her own half-brother Arthur to swindle her out of her fortune.

The now-invalid Mrs. Joe draws the shape of Orlick's distinctive hammer on a slate, silently identifying her attacker.

Two convicts sharing Pip's stagecoach reveal that a man paid them to find the boy who once fed him in the marshes.

At a dinner at Jaggers's house, Jaggers orders his housekeeper Molly to display her deeply scarred wrists to the guests.

Magwitch recounts his criminal history with Compeyson; Herbert passes Pip a note revealing Compeyson was Miss Havisham's former fiancé.

At dinner with Jaggers, Pip notices striking physical similarities between housekeeper Molly and Estella, deducing Molly is her mother.

Herbert relays Magwitch's story of a jealous woman and a lost child; Pip realizes Magwitch must be Estella's father.

Pip visits Jaggers's office and confronts him with the revelation that both Magwitch and Molly are Estella's biological parents.

Pip returns to England after years working in Cairo and visits Joe and Biddy, meeting their young son who has been named Pip.

This pool focuses on the revelations and turning points that repeatedly upend Pip's understanding of himself and the world around him. From his first moral compromise — lying about Miss Havisham and confessing it to Joe — to the gradual unraveling of Estella's true parentage, each event marks a shift in Pip's conscience and perception. Key discoveries include the stranger's secret file at the bar, the identification of Orlick as Mrs. Joe's attacker, and the web of connections linking Compeyson, Miss Havisham, Molly, and Magwitch. Jaggers's dinner scene, where Molly's scarred wrists are displayed, plants the seed of one of the novel's most significant revelations — that Estella's mother is Jaggers's own housekeeper. The pool closes with Pip's homecoming after years in Cairo, where he finds Joe and Biddy's family flourishing, a quiet confirmation of the honest life Pip had long neglected.