Pip plans to give up his apartment. Pip is greatly in debt and realizes he is also very ill. When he awakes from his delirium, he finds himself arrested for his debt to a jeweler. Pip is unable to be moved, though, due to his illness.
Pip goes in and out of deliriums. When he finally emerges, he finds himself with Joe. Pip wishes Joe would be angry with him for the way he treated him, but Joe tells him they will always be friends. Joe tells Pip that they received a letter about his being ill, and Biddy had urged him to go to Pip. She had taught Joe to write, and he has kept her updated.
Pip learns the next day that Miss Havisham had died. Miss Estella was her heir. However, she left four thousand pounds to Matthew Pocket, due to Pip’s account of him. Sarah Pocket got twenty-five pounds to buy medicine, Miss Georgiana got twenty pounds, and Mrs. Camilla got five pounds to buy something to help her sleep.
Orlick broke into Pumblechook’s house and roughed him up. He was captured and sent to jail.
Pip asks Joe if he is aware of who his patron was. Joe knows some of the story. When Pip is about to tell him, Joe reiterates that they will always be friends. The details are not important. He tells Pip he tried to protect him from Mrs. Joe’s anger, but he noticed that when he did she would be harsher with Pip.
As Pip gets better, Joe becomes nervous around him. Pip realizes that Joe expects him to abandon him again. Pip doesn’t want to admit to Joe he is broke because he knows that Joe would try to help him out with his savings.
Pip tells Joe that he is glad that he has been ill. He had forgotten Joe’s friendship in the past, but he won’t forget his coming to take care of him. Joe asks Pip if he is recovered, and Pip says yes. The next morning, Pip finds Joe gone. Joe leaves a letter saying he doesn’t want to intrude on him further. Pip also finds a receipt showing that Joe paid Pip's debt to the jeweler.
Pip goes to his home town with the idea of disclosing his poverty to Joe and being repentant. He plans to ask Biddy to marry him.