One meal time, Oliver asks the Workhouse Beadle, Mr Bumble, if he can have  some more gruel. Oliver is expelled from the workhouse and sold to a local undertaker, Mr Sowerberry. Oliver is treated badly at the Undertakers, so he escapes and runs off to London. Here he meets up with a streetwise young boy known as the 'Artful Dodger'.

'Dodger' takes Oliver back to his lodgings, run by a kind but sinister old gentleman named Fagin. The lodgings turn out to be a den of thieves, with Fagin running an academy for pick-pockets. Oliver is also introduced to Nancy, a loveable young woman, and her friend Bet.

On his first job, Oliver is arrested by the police for pick-pocketing. Mr Brownlow, the victim of the crime, learns of Oliver's sad past, Oliver is found not-guilty of any wrong doing and Mr Brownlow takes him back to his home. The villainous Bill Sikes worries that Oliver will reveal the whereabouts of the thieves den. He and Fagin force Nancy to snatch Oliver from Brownlow's house and return him to Fagin's.

Nancy does as she's told and kidnaps Oliver but later secretly arranges to return him to Brownlow. Before she can, Sikes finds out about her plans and murders her. Sikes grabs Oliver but following a chase is shot dead. OIiver returns to Mr Brownlow's who turns out to be his grandfather.