When the story begins Philip Pirrip “Pip” is an orphan being raised by his cantankerous sister and her mild-tempered blacksmith husband Joe Gargery. Visiting his parent’s graves one dreary day Pip is jumped by escaped convict Abel Magwitch who instructs Pip, on pain of death, to bring him a file to loose his shackles. Afraid for his life Pip steals a file from Joe’s forge and out of the kindness of his heart steals a piece of mutton pie for the starving convict. Touch by Pip’s kindness Magwitch later covers for Pip and tells the authorities he took the file and pie. Shortly after this incident Pip is invited to visit rich Miss Havisham of Satis House to “play” with her young adopted daughter Estella. It later proves that Miss Havisham was deserted by her fiance on her wedding day and has been teaching Estella how to get back at men and Pip has just been an experiment for their cruelty. Pip has grown more genteel during his visits to Satis House and is quite disappointed when Miss Havisham pays for him to be apprenticed to Joe, thus confining him to the hard life of a blacksmith.