ACT 1
Prologue: 1815
After 19 years on the chain gang, Jean Valjean finds that the ticket-of-leave he must display condemns him to be an outcast. Only the 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 the police and is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him. Valjean decides to start his life anew.
1823: Montreuil-Sur Mer
Eight years have passed and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, has became a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers, Fantine, has a secret illigitimate child. When the other woman discover this, they demand her dismissal.
Deperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter, Fantine sells her hair and then joins the whores in selling herself. Utterly degraded, she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be taken to prison by Javert when The Mayor arrives and demands she be taken to the hospital instead.
The Mayor then rescues a man pinned beneath a cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict 24601 Jean Valjean, who, he says, has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison, confesses that he is prisoner 24601.
At the hospital, Valjean promises the dying Fantine to find and look after her daughter Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him, but Valjean escapes.
1823: Montfermeil
Cosette has been lodged with the Thenardiers, who horribly abuse her while indugling their own daughter, Eponine. Valjean pays the Thenardiers to let him take her away to Paris.
1832: Paris
Nine years later, there is unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular leader General Lamarque, the only man left in the government who shows any feeling for the poor. A street-gang led by Thenardier and his wife sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert, who does not recognise Valjean until he has gone.
The Thenardiers daugher Eponine, who is secretly in love with the student Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.
News of General Lamarque's death circulates in the city and a group of politically-minded students stream out into the streets to whip up suport for a revolution.
Cosette is consumed by thoughout sof Marius, with whom she has fallen in love. Eponine brings Marius to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father's gang to rob Valjean's house. Valjean, convinced it was Javert lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country.
