Having seen Emily's raw emotion after meeting with Martha Endell, David feels that he has witnessed something extremely private. He doesn't even want to talk about her with Steerforth. David gets a letter from Miss Betsey asking what he wants to do next. After parting from all the Yarmouth Peggottys and Mr. Omer and his family, Steerforth and David leave Yarmouth. David tells Steerforth about his aunt's question: what should he do with his life? Miss Betsey has suggested that David become a proctor (in a word, a lawyer)

Steerforth and David spend about two weeks in Yarmouth. They mostly stay together, but David hates sailing and Steerforth loves it. So, Steerforth frequently goes out at night with the fisherman while David stays over with Peggotty and Mr. Barkis. David also goes on long walks by himself to see the old places of his childhood. So, there are several days when David goes off and Steerforth entertains himself – but David doesn't know how.

David persuades Steerforth to accompany him to Yarmouth to see Ham and Mr. Peggotty again and to meet Peggotty and Little Em’ly. Peggotty does not recognize David at first, but when she does, she sobs over him for a long time. Mr. Barkis, ill but glad to see David, opens his cherished money box and gives Peggotty some money to prepare dinner for David. Steerforth arrives and entertains Peggotty and David. In retrospect, the adult David muses that if anyone had told him that night that Steerforth’s joviality and manners were all part of a game to him, born from his sense of superiority, David would have dismissed such an idea as a lie.

David sets off on a month-long journey to Yarmouth, to the home of Peggotty and her family, to decide what profession to pursue. He takes his leave of Agnes and Mr. Wickfield, and Doctor Strong throws a going-away party in David’s honor. The next morning, David leaves on the London coach and tries to appear as manly as possible. Nonetheless, the coachman asks him to resign his seat of honor to an older man. David spends the evening at an inn, where the waiter pokes fun at his youthfulness and the chambermaid gives him a pitiful room. David attends a play, returns to the inn, and discovers Steerforth in a sitting room. Steerforth is now attending Oxford but is bored by his studies and is on his way home to see his mother. David and Steerforth are happily reunited, and the inn staff immediately treat David with respect.

David sets off on a month-long journey to Yarmouth, to the home of Peggotty and her family, to decide what profession to pursue. He takes his leave of Agnes and Mr. Wickfield, and Doctor Strong throws a going-away party in David's honor.

David charts his development as a young man. His growing confidence in his academic and social life is clear to see. He develops an infatuation with an older lady.

During written correspondence with Peggoty David finds out that the Murdstones have left The Rookery abandoned and marks the final loss of his old childhood home. It gives him some cause for reflection. He also comes to spend a lot of time with Mr Dick who quickly becomes a firm favourite at his school. He confides in David one day that there is a strange man lurking in the shadows around the home he shares with David's aunt. David puts this down to his 'condition'. One day when he is walking with Mr Dick back to his coach he espies Uriah who invites him to take tea with him and his mother. This he does albeit reluctantly, whilst there a stranger pays them a visit.

Miss Betsey proposes that David, whom she has nicknamed “Trot,” be sent to school at Canterbury. They go to Canterbury and visit Mr. Wickfield, a lawyer and a friend of Miss Betsey’s. At Mr. Wickfield’s, they meet Uriah Heep, an unattractive young redhead dressed entirely in black and skeleton-like in appearance. Uriah takes them to Mr. Wickfield, who recommends a school for David but warns that the dorms are full and that David will have to stay elsewhere. The adults agree that David can go to the school and stay with Mr. Wickfield until they find a more suitable arrangement. David meets Agnes, Mr. Wickfield’s lovely and charming daughter, who dotes on her father and is his one joy since his wife died

David's aunt writes to Mr Murdstone to advise that David is now staying at her house and enquiring what he is to do about it. The meetings between the Murdstone's and Miss Trotwood does not go well but fortunately David is asked his opinion and for once someone actually listens to him.

Determined to reach Miss Betsey's home in Dover, David sets out on foot. He passes a small second-hand clothing store, sells his waistcoat for a small sum, and then spends the night in a haystack near Salem House School. David, "a dusty, sunburnt, half-clothed figure," arrives in Dover after six days of traveling and inquires about his aunt. After several unsuccessful inquiries, he is directed to Miss Trotwood's cottage. Miss Trotwood, seeing the ragged urchin in her garden, sternly bids him, "Go away! Go along! No boys here!" But when David tells her who he is and what an unhappy life he has led since his mother's death, she takes charge of him with vigor, but it should be added, with abruptness.

On the Sunday before they leave, Mr. Micawber and Mrs. Micawber have David over for dinner, and both thank him for being a friend to them in difficult times. Mr. Micawber urges David to spare himself similar difficulties by avoiding procrastination, though he also notes that "applying that maxim" to his engagement to Mrs. Micawber led him to go into debt to get married. He then reiterates that David should never spend more than he earns, and David promises to heed this advice.   David says goodbye to the Micawbers as they board a coach the next morning, and Mr. Micawber reiterates that he hopes his "blighted destiny" will serve as a warning to David. He also promises to help David if anything "turns up," which he says he is sure it will.

Clearly unwanted by the Murdstone's David is sent to work at their companies counting house in London. Whilst he is mostly concerned with upward mobility, his time at the counting-house is a grim reminder that it's possible to slide down the social ladder as well. David finds himself a member of the working classes, and without any hope of further education, his prospects for climbing back into the middle class are limited.

Shortly after David’s mother’s funeral, Miss Murdstone gives Peggotty, who is being dismissed, a month’s notice. David anticipates constantly being berated by the Murdstones, but instead he finds himself left to his own devices. As the day of Peggotty’s departure nears, Peggotty proposes that David accompany her to Yarmouth and stay there as a guest. When Peggotty poses the proposal to Miss Murdstone, Miss Murdstone, citing her brother’s need for peace, which David is accused of disturbing, begrudgingly gives her consent.

David is sent home from Salem House upon learning that his sweet mother and baby son have died. Peggotty is the only one to provide him with any comfort. The Murdstones are not that p[leased to see him of course.

Pushing aside his fear of Mr. Murdstone and Miss Murdstone, David enters the house only to hear Clara singing. The sound makes David think of his early childhood, and he approaches to find her singing to a baby. When she sees David, Clara embraces him and introduces him to his baby brother. David is so happy that he later wishes he "had died" during the reunion. The Murdstone's return later that evening and David apologises for having previously bitten Mr Murdstone.

The young Copperfield is very much alone for the first month at school. Eventually it becomes apparent that the school will become fully occupied with other schoolboys. David meets his first real friend in a young boy called Traddles. David is also summoned to meet the headmaster a certain Mr Creakle who is a terrible brute of a man. He treats his family with disdain and his pupils even worse. David fears the almost daily beatings that he and Traddles have to endure at the hands of the sadistic headmaster.

Dickens describes eloquently the turmoil David's life now experiences. He is sent away to boarding school in London. He is not escorted or chaperoned and is naively taken in by a waiter and made fun of by other coach passengers. Peggoty secretly gave him a hug and some coins but London is a big bad world. He eventually meets up with Mr Mell who advises the young David that he is the school teacher. The boarding school appears run down and as it is still the school holidays there are no there no other boys for David to make friends with.

Whilst David was away at Peggoty's home, his mother remarries. David's new 'father' is a strict authoritarian and views emotions as signs of weakness. He believes in firmness and when David struggles in his studies he is quick to administer punishment. David's relationship with his mother is further strained when talk of a boarding school education is raised.

Peggotty takes David to Yarmouth, where her family live in a boat which they had converted into a home. Peggotty’s brother, Mr. Daniel Peggotty, adopted his nephew, Ham, and his niece, Little Em’ly, who are not siblings, when their fathers drowned. Mrs. Gummidge, the widowed wife of Mr. Peggotty’s brother, lives with them too. David has a lovely time on holiday and quite forgets about his mother back at home. When he arrives, Peggotty tells him that his mother married Mr. Murdstone while they were away. David is reunited with his mother. Mr. Murdstone orders David’s mother to control herself in her behavior toward her son. David sees Mr. Murdstone again, for the first time as his mother’s husband. David thinks that Mr. Murdsone, with his great black beard, looks like an enormous and threatening dog.

David recalls his home and its vast and mysterious passageways, the churchyard where his father is buried, Sundays in church, and his early life with his youthful, pretty mother and the kindly, capable Peggotty. After the stranger's departure, David hears an argument between his mother and Peggotty about the man. Peggotty insists that the man, Mr. Murdstone, is not an acceptable suitor. About two months later, Peggotty invites David to spend a fortnight with her at her brother's place at Yarmouth. David is eager to go, but he asks what his mother will say. "She can't live by herself, you know," he insists. Young as he is, he does not realize that he is being sent away deliberately. His mother has a tearful farewell with him. As David and Peggotty drive off in a cart, David looks back. He sees Mr. Murdstone come up to his mother and apparently scold her for being so emotional.