Wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit is surrounded by a host of grasping, unscrupulous relatives & suspects the family vices of selfishness & greed are already showing in his grandson. The younger Martin is therefore cast out upon the world to learn to fend for himself. Apprenticed to the oily hypocrite Peckniff, he meets both the sweet-tempered Tom Pinch & the irrepressible Mark Tapley, with whom he sets forth to America to find his fortune. Dickens created some of his most gleefully repulsive & enduring characters in this tale of corruption & virtue, murder & unrequited love.