Our Mutual Friend (written in the years 1864–65) is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" (which is, incidentally, a quote from Our Mutual Friend, spoken by Bella at the end of book III, chapter iv.). In the opening chapter, a young man is on his way to receive his inheritance, which, according to his father's will, he can claim only if he marries Bella Wilfer, a beautiful, mercenary girl whom he has never met. However, before he can arrive, a body is found in the Thames and identified as him. The money passes on, instead, to the working-class Boffins, and the effects spread throughout various corners of London society.

— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.