In coastal Cornwall, England, during the early 19th Century, a young woman discovers that she’s living with a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecking for profit.

As the threat of Napoleonic invasion looms ever closer, a German duke and potential ally of England falls for a pretty ballerina.

An elderly shop-keeper and his grand-daughter are threatened by the rich, mean-spirited dwarf Quilp, and decide to flee across England to escape him. They are pursued both by Quilp and…