Masterpiece Theatre: Bleak House

The Defoes, a family of female divorce lawyers, are forced to face their past following the return of their estranged father after a 30-year absence.

Society lawyer Christopher Durant agrees to defend his friend Phil Siddall after Siddall is arrested for the murder of an ex-girlfriend. With the help of nightclub singer Pat Abbott and crime boss Tony Gazotti (a former client), Durant launches his own investigation of the murder in order to prove his friend's innocence.

Due to complicity in a robbery raid the young Ursula comes to a detention center, in which the education is hard since she is considered a serious offender. In a joint outbreak, she gains the respect of the other girls.

Dick will do anything to protect his sister Jean as would her father. But she is in love with sleazy Harry Swift who has his eye on her money. When Harry has her stay with him at a hotel all night, her father still will not give his permission for a wedding. Harry threatens to tell everyone about Jean, and Dick shoots him dead. Jean cannot forgive either her father or her brother and will testify against Dick even if it means the electric chair for her brother.

The young Lut Loris is undergoing a trial for killing his girlfriend Maria Luce. According to the reconstruction of the facts, the young man would shoot his mistress making it then end up under the wheels of a tram. On the remains of the woman's body, however, there is no trace of a gunshot wound and, during the trial, the accused, who appears hypnotized, refuses to answer.

The lawyer Franziska Schlüter works for the Aescuria insurance and is responsible for processing applications for disbursement of occupational disability policies. The company policy provides as a guideline to prevent the approval as far as possible. When the widow of a victim, who committed suicide after being rejected, storms the office to loudly accuse these machinations, Franziska begins to doubt the correctness of her work and to rethink. She quits and works as a freelance lawyer to help injured parties legally to get their rights. First she deals with the case of a family in the neighborhood. The father has been in a wheelchair since an accident. However, the Strelaus have not yet seen any money from the insurance company. Initially not taken seriously by colleagues, the shy woman takes on the fight against the health insurance system and has to fight against resistance and above all with her own self-doubt.