A woman gives birth to a boy in an orphanage owned by the Widow Corney, dying as she does so. She leaves him a locket, containing a portrait of her mother, which Corney takes. Her assistant names the child Oliver Twist from his rotating alphabetical list of names. Six years later, Oliver, now working in the orphanage, requests to see his locket. Corney says he can have it when he’s twelve. Six years later, Oliver is forced on the night before his 12th birthday into drawing straws at dinner for who has to ask Corney for more food. After drawing the shortest one, she throws him out of the workhouse for daring to ask her such a question without his locket. He returns to steal it at night and heads out to London.