Orphan Ettie Shaw is penniless and homeless on the streets of London when she is spotted by her older brother Joe.

Joe has fallen in with a notorious pickpocket gang run by a man called Fagin, and Ettie must disguise herself as a boy so she can come back with him to Fagin’s lair.

At first Ettie is able to help out with mending and other domestic jobs, but when one of the other boys falls ill, Fagin demands that Ettie go out pickpocketing with Joe and everything goes horribly wrong …