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, Lady Dedlock finds her 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.