Before the events of "A Christmas Carol" changed Ebenezer Scrooge's heart, there was Scrooge and Marley. The two men meet as youths, Ebenezer and Jacob, at the Professor Drabb's Academy for Boys. Soon Jacob begins turning the innocent Ebenezer's heart to extortion and ambition, and as the boys grow into men they develop a fledgling shipping business of dubious legality, dealing in the soon-to-be-outlawed slave trade. The only thing that could possibly save Scrooge's soul is the affections of his sister Fan's best friend, Belle Fairchild.
