After escaping from the dark workhouse where he was born, the young orphan Oliver finds himself on the mean streets of Victorian-era London and is unwillingly recruited into a gang of scheming urchins. In this band of petty thieves, Oliver encounters the vibrant characters who have captured readers' imaginations for more than 150 years: the loathsome Fagin, the beautiful and Iragic, Nancy, the crafty Artful Dodger, and perhaps one of the greatest villains of all time--the terrifying Bill Sikes. Though he is treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life, Oliver's pious innocence leads him at last to salvation--and the shocking discovery of his true identity.