At The Center of Martin Chuzzlewit is Martin himself—very old, very rich, very much on his guard. What he suspects (with good reason) is that every one of his close and distant relations will stop at nothing to become the inheritor of Iris great fortune. Reluctantly heading for America in search of opportunity, his grandson, the penniless young Martin goes west, rides a riverboat, and is overtaken by bad company and mortal danger—while the battle for his grandfather's gold reveals new depths of family treachery, cunning, and ruthlessness. And in scene after wonderful scene of conflict and suspense, of high excitement and fierce and hilarious satire, Dickens's huge saga of greed versus decency comes to its magnificent climax.