Little Dorrit contains numerous sub-plots. One concerns Arthur Clennam's friends, the kind-hearted Meagles family, who are upset when their daughter Pet marries the artist Henry Gowan, and when their servant and foster daughter Tattycoram is lured away from them by the sinister Miss Wade, an acquaintance of the criminal Rigaud. A jilted sweetheart of Gowan, Miss Wade is ruled by her anger.
Another subplot concerns the Italian man John Baptist Cavalletto, who was the cellmate of Rigaud in Marseilles when jailed for a minor crime. He makes his way to London, meets up by chance with Clennam – who stands security for him as he builds up his business in wood carving – and gains acceptance among the residents of Bleeding Heart Yard. Cavalletto repays this aid by searching for Blandois/Rigaud when Arthur wants him found. This action leads to the revelation of Mrs Clennam's secrets.
The other major subplot is the satire of British bureaucracy, characterized by the Circumlocution Office, where the expertise is how not to do it.
