When her husband dies Mrs Nickleby and her children Kat and Nick lose their farm and ask for help from her estranged brother-in-law,ruthless businessman Ralph,who has obtained,through bribery,a chain of residential homes with corrupt Russian Hawkovsky. Ralph employs Nick as a care assistant in one of his homes,run by sadistic Squeers and his saucy daughter Frannie and Nick is appalled by the treatment of the residents,especially put-upon,illiterate Mrs Smike,whom he befriends. When Squeers tortures Mrs Smike after she has retrieved a locket from his office Nick punches him and goes on the run with the old lady. Meanwhile Ralph's ex-employee Maddy Bhray,whom Nick briefly met,agrees to an arranged marriage to help her elderly father.
—don @ minifie-1