They come across many interesting people in their travels and are often met with the kindness of strangers. Yet, underneath an animated and colorful world, they also encounter the bleak reality of the industrial age. From simple villages and fields of flowers, they cross into a dirty city full of mass unemployment and plague victims—where children die from starvation and are left on the curb. The story isn't just about Nell and her grandfather, but the people who are connected to them directly or indirectly. There is Richard Swiveller, a careless young man who is a friend of Nell's plotting brother, who wants Swiveller to marry Nell for the fortune he thinks she has. Daniel Quilp, the malicious dwarf, has a vendetta against the grandfather—who was the one person who managed to fool him. There is honest Kit, who finds himself the victim of spite of people he never harmed. Kit desires to help Nell, whoM he worships as a personal angel that has always inspired the best in him. The mysterious Bevis Marks, who is a generous patron to some and an enemy to others, also has his own reasons for finding Nell and her grandfather.