Our Mutual Friend recap

A fortune made from London's refuse passes to the kind Boffins when heir John Harmon is reported drowned, while Bella Wilfer loses the marriage that was meant to make her rich. Harmon has survived and, as secretary John Rokesmith, watches Bella and falls in love with her. The Boffins take Bella in; Mr Boffin later pretends to become a miser, prompting her to reject wealth without kindness and marry the supposedly poor Rokesmith. His identity is finally restored and the Boffins share the fortune with them. Alongside this plot, lawyer Eugene Wrayburn pursues Lizzie Hexam, provoking schoolmaster Bradley Headstone's murderous jealousy. Lizzie saves Eugene after Headstone attacks him, and they marry; Headstone and the blackmailer Riderhood drown fighting. Silas Wegg's attempt to blackmail the Boffins fails, the Lammles' marriage and schemes collapse, and Fledgeby's secret exploitation of Riah is exposed. The novel closes by contrasting these hard-won loyalties with fashionable society's empty judgments.

Gaffer Hexam and his daughter Lizzie recover a body from the Thames believed to be John Harmon, who had been returning to England to claim a fortune built from dust heaps. Harmon's inheritance required him to marry Bella Wilfer, a young woman he had never met. At a dinner hosted by the newly fashionable Veneerings, lawyer Mortimer Lightwood tells the case to his idle friend Eugene Wrayburn. A stranger calling himself Julius Handford asks searching questions about the death and then disappears. With Harmon presumed dead, the estate passes to the former servants Nicodemus and Henrietta Boffin. The goodhearted couple hire the resentful Silas Wegg to read to them and consider how their wealth might help Bella, while Gaffer comes under suspicion because of the body he found.

Rogue Riderhood accuses Gaffer Hexam of murdering John Harmon, but the charge loses force when Gaffer himself is found drowned. Lizzie, now orphaned, remains determined to support her younger brother Charley's education. The Boffins invite Bella Wilfer to live with them as a way of honoring the future she lost, and they employ a reserved private secretary named John Rokesmith. A stranger who had called himself Julius Handford remains connected in some unexplained way to the supposed Harmon murder. Meanwhile Wegg, increasingly possessive of the Boffins' property, joins the taxidermist Mr Venus in searching the old dust mounds for documents that might give him leverage over his patrons. The Boffins' generosity begins drawing together people whose motives range from gratitude to predation, while the true circumstances of the river death remain unsettled.

Charley Hexam introduces Lizzie to his schoolmaster Bradley Headstone, whose severe self-control gives way to an obsessive desire to marry her. Eugene Wrayburn also seeks Lizzie out, partly from genuine attraction and partly from his habit of drifting into whatever interests him. Lizzie distrusts the social gulf between them and refuses to encourage either man. She goes to live with Jenny Wren, a young dolls' dressmaker, and finds help from the patient moneylender Riah. Riah's business is secretly owned by Fascination Fledgeby, who lets antisemitic blame fall on Riah while keeping the profits and social respectability. In the world of the wealthy, Alfred and Sophronia Lammle discover after their wedding that each married the other for nonexistent money. They turn their disappointment into schemes against richer acquaintances, including the sheltered Georgiana Podsnap.

Rokesmith is revealed to the reader as the surviving John Harmon. Before reaching England he exchanged clothes and names with a shipmate; an attack beside the river killed the other man, whose body was then mistaken for his. John has remained hidden to observe Bella without the pressure of the inheritance and has fallen in love with her. He proposes as Rokesmith and is rejected because Bella still imagines a wealthy marriage as her route to freedom. Mr Boffin appears to grow possessive and miserly, studying accounts of misers and humiliating his secretary. Bella becomes increasingly disturbed by this change. Lizzie leaves London to escape the pressure created by Eugene and Headstone, but Eugene quietly searches for her, and Headstone follows his movements. Sophronia Lammle, unwilling to let Georgiana be sacrificed to her husband's plot, warns the girl before the planned marriage can trap her.

Mr Boffin dismisses Rokesmith with calculated cruelty. Bella rejects Boffin's money and leaves his house, choosing affection and self-respect over the luxury she once wanted. She marries Rokesmith believing him poor, and they make a modest home with help from her gentle father; she still does not know that her husband is John Harmon. Wegg and Venus uncover wills among the dust heaps and believe they can use the documents to control the fortune, though Venus grows uneasy with Wegg's intended blackmail. Eugene finds Lizzie working near the river outside London. Headstone follows him, attacks him savagely, and leaves him for dead. Lizzie finds Eugene in the water, brings him to safety, and remains near him as his life hangs in the balance. The violence transforms what Eugene had treated casually into an urgent moral choice.

Believing himself likely to die, Eugene asks Lizzie to marry him so that his last act will honor rather than compromise her. They marry, and his condition slowly improves. Headstone tries to shift suspicion onto Riderhood by imitating his clothing and disposing of evidence near the lock where Riderhood works, but Riderhood recognizes the attempt and begins blackmailing him. Rokesmith tells Bella that he is John Harmon and explains how he survived the river plot and chose concealment. Bella learns that the Boffins knew his identity and that Mr Boffin's cruelty and greed were a performance designed to test and correct her attachment to money. Reconciled, the families prepare to share the Harmon fortune. Wegg nevertheless moves forward with his own claim against the Boffins, unaware that Venus has ceased to be his willing partner.

Venus exposes Wegg's scheme, and the supposed blackmailer is expelled from the Boffin household. John Harmon is restored to his name and fortune; he and Bella, now parents, remain united with the Boffins, whose generosity was genuine even when Mr Boffin's miserliness was not. Riderhood's hold over Bradley Headstone ends in a violent struggle in which both men drown. Eugene recovers from his injuries and remains married to Lizzie, embracing purposeful work and refusing to be ashamed of her origins. Their marriage becomes a subject of contemptuous fashionable gossip, but the normally timid Twemlow surprises the Veneering circle by defending Eugene's loyalty and judging Lizzie by her character. The Lammles leave England after their financial and social schemes fail. Fledgeby is exposed as the true power behind Riah's lending business and suffers a beating arranged by Lammle. Jenny Wren looks toward companionship with Sloppy, and the many plots close with humane attachments surviving a society governed by money, class, and appearances.

John Rokesmith is publicly restored as John Harmon, alive and legally entitled to the fortune that shaped the novel. The Boffins reveal that Mr Boffin's apparent transformation into a miser was a performance intended to free Bella from her worship of money and test her regard for John; they welcome the married couple and their child and place the wealth at their disposal. Venus refuses to support Wegg's blackmail, and the Boffins have Wegg removed. Bradley Headstone's attempt to implicate Rogue Riderhood ends when the two men struggle and drown together. Eugene survives Headstone's attack because Lizzie rescues him; he marries her while desperately ill and later recovers, accepting the work and social responsibility he had avoided. Society condemns the unequal match, but Twemlow openly defends it. The Lammles flee after their schemes collapse, Fledgeby's concealed cruelty is exposed and punished, and Jenny Wren is left with the prospect of a gentler future alongside Sloppy.