This novel is told from the point of view of Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip, who begins his tale as a young boy visiting the graves of his parents when an escaped convict happens upon him and threatens him into helping him get food. This experience will have a huge impact on Pip's life, although just how huge is left to be discovered until much later in the novel. Pip soon finds himself in the service of an eccentrically, manically wounded old woman...

"When Heidi is sent to live in the Swiss Alps with her grumpy grandpa, the village takes pity on her. But Heidi's sweet and inquisitive nature quickly softens Grandpa's scowl and his heart. Heidi loves her new life in the mountains shepherding goats, gathering flowers, and playing with her best friend, Peter ... until she is forced to move away to the soot and smoke of Frankfurt to be the companion of a young girl. Will Heidi ever return to Grandpa...

Eccentric Dr. Henry Jekyll discovers a drug that changes him, first at will and later involuntarily, into the shriveled, misshapen monster, Edward Hyde.