PROLOGUE: 1815, Worthy
Jean Valjean, released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang, finds that the yellow ticket of leave he must, by law, display, condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean, embittered by years of hardship, repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by police; he is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him and gives him two precious silver candlesticks. The Bishop admonishes Valjean to start his life anew, to become "an honest man" and tells Valjean, "I have bought your soul for God."
1823, MONTREUIL-SUL-MER
Eight years have passed and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, has risen to become both a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers, Fantine, has a secret illegitimate child. When the other women discover this hidden aspect of Fantine's life, they demand her dismissal. The foreman, whose advances she has rejected, throws her out.
Desperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter, Fantine sells her locket, her hair, and then joins the prostitutes to sell herself. Utterly degraded by her new trade, she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be taken to prison by Inspector Javert when "The Mayor" arrives and demands she be taken to a hospital instead.
The Mayor then rescues a man pinned down by a runaway cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict 24601, Jean Valjean, a parole-breaker whom he has been tracking for years but who, he says, has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison in his place, confesses to the court that he is prisoner 24601.
At the hospital, Valjean promises the dying Fantine that he will find and look after her daughter, Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him, but Valjean escapes.
1823, MONTFERMEIL
Cosette has been lodged for five years with the Thenardiers, who run an inn, horribly abusing the little girl whom they use as a skivvy while indulging their own daughter, Eponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching water in the dark. He pays the Thenardiers to let him take Cosette away, and he takes her to Paris. But Javert is still on his tail . . . .
1832, PARIS
Nine years later, there is great unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular General Lamarque, the only man left in the governnment who shows any feeling for the poor. The urchin Gavroche is in his element, mixing with the prostitutes and beggars of the capital. Among the street gangs is one led by Thenardier and his wife which sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert who does not recognize Valjean until he has made good his escape. The Thenardiers' daughter, Eponine, who is secretly in love with the student Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.
