Part One: Young Pip (Oscar Kennedy) is out on the marshes when he happens upon escaped convict Abel Magwitch (Ray Winstone), who instructs him to steal a file so he can remove his shackles. Pip returns, bringing a slice of pie with him as well as the file, much to Magwitch’s amazement. Later, Magwitch is re-arrested while fighting with a mysterious fellow escapee (Paul Rhys).Pip lives with his sister (Claire Rushbrook) and the blacksmith Joe Gargery (Shaun Dooley), who learn from Joe’s uncle (Mark Addy) that the reclusive Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson) has use for a young boy. Sure of a reward, Pip’s sister puts him forward and he goes on to become a playmate for Havisham’s adopted daughter Estella (Izzy Meikle-Small). During his time at Miss Havisham’s house, Pip becomes convinced that she will become his benefactor and so is disappointed when she merely signs a contract paying for Pip's blacksmith apprenticeship to Joe, even more so when Havisham tells him never to return to see her. While he and Joe are at the house, Pip’s sister is attacked by the evil Orlick (Jack Roth), leaving her bedridden as Pip begins his seven-year apprenticeship.Seven years later, Pip (now played by Douglas Booth), having once again seen Estella (now played by Vanessa Kirby), is visited by the lawyer Jaggers (David Suchet), who informs him that he has an anonymous benefactor who will pay for him to go to London and begin life as a gentleman, on the condition that he must be known only as Pip (not ‘Mr Pip’) and must not enquire about the source of the money. Assuming the benefactor to be Miss Havisham, he visits her and promises not to let her down.

Part Two: In London Pip rooms with the unaffected Herbert Pocket,a relative of Miss Havisham,cut off by his family for wanting to marry the poorly situated Clara Barley and whom Pip helps get work. In other respects,as he fritters away the allowance paid him by Jaggers,his guardian,he becomes a snob,uneasy when Joe visits. He is still in love with Estella,as is the egocentric toff Bentley Drummle,but Estella tells Pip she is incapable of love as Miss Havisham taught her to be hard-hearted and Pip is a witness when Estella accuses her adoptive mother of this. Returning from Kent for Mrs Joe's funeral Pip is on the eve of his twenty-first birthday when he will receive his full inheritance when he has a visitor,Abel Magwitch,the convict he once tried to help. To Pip's horror Magwitch tells him that he is his benefactor and not,as Pip had supposed, Miss Havisham.

Part Three: Not wanting to accept that Magwitch is his benefactor Pip goes to Satis House where,not only is it confirmed but he is horrified to learn that Estella is marrying Drummle,to destroy him,the continuation of her adopted mother's plan for her to break men's hearts,Pip having been the guinea pig. Back in London his snobbery must be put aside when Herbert tells him that,as a lifer returned illegally to England to see Pip,Magwitch will be hung if caught and plans are made to smuggle him on board a ship. Discovering that Estella's mother is Molly,Jaggers' housekeeper whom he saved from the gallows,he forces the lawyer to tell him that Magwitch is the girl's father. Pip thwarts an attempt to kill him by Orlick,who boasts that he attacked Pip's sister,but Orlick,after the reward for Magwitch's capture,is in league with Compeyson,another ex-convict and Magwitch's sworn enemy,as well as the man who jilted Miss Havisham. As Pip rows his benefactor to safety they are intercepted by soldiers led by Compeyson,whom Magwitch kills,himself dying after Pip has told him that his daughter is alive and loved. Returning to Kent to beg Joe's forgiveness he learns that Drummle has died and Estella returned to Satis House to live alone after Miss Havisham has died in a fire. He runs to see her and this time she does not reject him.