Don't be too afraid of pointers - you're already using them if you're using Python when you work with mutable structures.
>>> a = {'foo': 0}
>>> b = a
>>> b['foo'] = 1
>>> a['foo']
1
>>> id(a)
140428021358832
>>> id(b)
140428021358832
That's all there is to them. It's a reference to another location in memory, which, when dereferenced, refers to that other location. In pseudocode:
>>> b = 1
>>> a = &b
>>> b = 2
>>> a*
2
>>> a* = 3
>>> b
3