The main characters are:
* Mr. Samuel Pickwick, the jovial and well-meaning leader of the group
* Mr. Tracy Tupman, the romantic and easily-flustered member
* Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, the poet and sentimentalist
* Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, the clumsy and accident-prone member
The book follows their humorous adventures as they travel around England, encountering a variety of eccentric characters and getting themselves into all sorts of comical situations.