Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and analyzes the novel’s depiction of incest, references to death by suicide, and discrimination and slurs against Romani people.

The author clarifies that the story to follow is Moll Flanders’s own story and that he has only edited the work to make it more modest. The author warns that the account contains plenty of wickedness and that the reader must focus on the repentance that comes after. He intends the work to be one of instruction, not least in religious virtue. It also reveals the rewards that come from diligent work and perseverance. He also notes that Moll Flanders is not the only example in the story of how penitence can transform a person: both her governess and her Lancashire husband provide models. The book will follow her from the beginning of her life into her old age.

Moll Flanders narrates the history of her life under her assumed name. She is born in Newgate prison; her mother has been taken there to be hanged for thievery but gains a reprieve when she is found to be with child. After Moll is six months old, her mother is transported to the colonies in North America to work in indentured servitude.