The moneylender Smallweed has evidence of Lady Dedlock's secret past and intends to use it against her. Cornered, Lady Dedlock makes a terrible decision. And then the impossible happens - a result in Chancery. But it is one that will astound everyone.

BAFTA-winning writer Andrew Davies and an all-star cast bring one of Charles Dicken's most brilliant novels to life. Young orphan Esther Summerson is brought before London's High Court of Chancery with Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, wards of court who are caught up in the infamous and never-ending case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Meanwhile, the beautiful Lady Dedlock finds her elegant world turned upside down when her husband's lawyer Tulkinghorn gets wind of a dark secret in her past, and begins a deadly game of cat and mouse that could end with her destruction.