Spots 
At the Maypole Inn, parish clerk Solomon Daisy recounts the mysterious murder of landowner Reuben Haredale twenty-two years earlier. A grim stranger listens in silence before riding off into a gathering storm. Suspicion and old secrets linger around the country inn, setting a dark atmosphere for the events ahead.
Gabriel Varden, a genial London locksmith riding home through the storm, encounters a frantic scene on the highway. He discovers Edward Chester lying wounded after a violent assault by the mysterious highway stranger. Varden carries the injured youth back to the Maypole Inn for refuge and medical care.
Returning home to Clerkenwell, Gabriel Varden faces his wife's sharp religious moralizing and constant scolding. His daughter Dolly charms everyone with her flirtatious manner and vibrant beauty. Meanwhile, the short-statured apprentice Simon Tappertit nurses grand vanity and hidden resentment toward his master.
Under cover of night, Simon Tappertit slips away from the locksmith's shop to join a clandestine guild of London apprentices. Calling themselves the United Bulldogs, these young men conduct absurd rituals and swear vengeful oaths against authority. Foolish ambition begins turning discontent into organized rebellion.
Gabriel Varden visits Mrs. Mary Rudge in her humble home, where her son Barnaby lives in an innocent world of wild visions and bright clothing. Accompanied everywhere by his clever raven Grip, Barnaby remains oblivious to the dark history haunting his family. Mrs. Rudge carries a heavy secret that keeps her in perpetual anxiety.
A sinister stranger visits Mrs. Rudge under cover of darkness, demanding money and enforcing her silence with violent threats. Though Barnaby returns during the encounter, his mother hides the intruder's identity to protect her son. The shadow of the past murder directly exerts its dreadful hold over her life.
Dickens depicts personal grudges, family rivalries, and mob violence converging during London's anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780.