[GTALUG] Docker, NodeJS and complexity

I have some existing projects to contribute to that use NodeJS and Docker, and I am finding that getting set up to work on them is extremely daunting. I have never really used Docker. I have never really used NodeJS/npm/etc. I do know Javascript, but I don't build projects like this - it reminds me of Ruby-on-Rails, which I found to be a huge snarl of complexity. I know that the initial development was done on Macs, but in theory at least, I should be able to set up the Docker container and use that to get me into an equivalent development environment, but I don't really know how. Does anyone have a Debian-flavoured tutorial for setting up Docker/NodeJS so that I can build and run someone else's code? Thanks!