n the year 1815 Jean Valjean is released after nineteen years of penal servitude. Once a slow-witted, kindly peasant (condemned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving
nephews), he is now an astute criminal. He attempts to rob the saintly Monseigneur Myriel, but meets with such kindness that his heart begins to soften. Unfortunately, another theft, no
sooner committed than it fills him with remorse, renders him liable for rearrest and a life sentence.

Calling himself 'Monsieur Madeleine', he sets up in business in a small town in Northern France. He flourishes, becomes mayor, and is revered as the benefactor of the countryside. He
is kind to Fantine, an unfortunate woman of the town, and promises to rescue her illegitimate daughter Cosette from foster-parents living near Paris, the rascally inn-keeper Thénardier
and his wife. At this moment he learns that a prisoner at the local assizes is charged with being the wanted criminal Jean Valjean. After a struggle of conscience, he attends the trial and
confesses his identity. He is placed in the custody of Javert, a police-agent who has for some time suspected him. Once again he is sent to the convict settlement at Toulon, but within a
year he escapes in such a manner that his death is presumed.

Now he fulfills his promise to Fantine, and rescues Cosette. He takes her--a half-starved, terrorized child--to Paris and lives in semi-hiding. Cosette grows into a care-free creature for
whom the past is a blank and who never questions that Jean Valjean is her father.

One day Javert the police-agent, now also in Paris, meets and recognizes Jean Valjean. After an exciting chase Jean Valjean escapes with Cosette to a convent where he remains for
some years as gardener, while Cosette is educated by the nuns.

Once again, as 'Monseiur Fauchelevent', he ventures into the world. Cosette is now a beautiful young girl and Valjean is, seemingly, a venerable citizen. They live on money hidden by
Valjean in former days. Cosette falls in love with a young student, Marius, who has left a wealthy home to become a democrat. Marius is wounded fighting at the barricades during the
July revolution. Jean Valjean secures his body and escapes with him through a manhole into the great sewer of Paris. After a terrifying progress he emerges, deposits the unconscious
Marius at his grandfather's house, and disappears.

Marius's grandfather consents to his marriage with Cosette, thinking her to be the daughter of the respectable 'Monseiur Fauchelevent'. After the marriage Jean Valjean tells Marius
that he is an ex-convict and not Cosette's father. Marius, shocked, and knowing neither the whole story nor the fact that he owes Jean Valjean his life, acquiesces in the old man's plan
to disappear gradually from their lives. Eventually, his eyes are opened and there is a happy reconciliation, but in the meantime Jean Valjean, sorrowing for Cosette, has lost the will to
live, and his death follows.