Charles Dickens is a newly famous author and a man who has only just married. He thinks that he is about to become a father.

 

Why, then, does he go wandering London after dark and why, under the influence of a famous clown, does he begin an affair with Sarah, a barmaid who works in a North London pub?

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While his own descriptions of sex barely exist, he becomes immersed in an affair so all-consuming that his life begins to fall apart. He takes to drink, he develops a liking for rough company, he even steals a necklace. Where will it end?

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During a Christmas entertainment held in his own house, Dickens, Sarah, and his wife edge towards a confrontation that has the potential to ruin him for ever.