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PROLOGUE: 1815, DIGNE 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 Dinge 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, also giving
him to precious candlesticks. Valjean decides to start his life anew. 1823, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER Eight years have passed and
Valjean, having broken his parol and changed his name to Monsieur
Madeline, 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, 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 whores in selling
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 Javert when
"The Mayor" arrives and demands that she be taken to the hospital instead.
The Mayor then rescues a man pinned down by a runaway cart.
Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of the convict 24601 Jean
Valjean, a parolebreaker whom he has been tracking for years but whom, 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 to 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 who they use as a skivvy while
indulging in their own daughter, Eponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching
water in the dark. He pays the Thenardiers to let him take Cosette away
and takes her to Paris. But Javert is still on his tail... 1832, PARIS
Nine years later, there is a great 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. The urchin Gavroche
is in his element mixing with the whores and beggars of the capital.
Among the street-gangs is the ome led by Thanardier 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 Thenardier's
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. At a political meeting in a small cafe, a group of idealistic students
prepare for the revolution they are sure will erupt on the death of
General Lamarque. When Gavroche brings news of the General's death,
the students, led by Enjolras, stream out into the streets to whip up
popular support. Only Marius is distracted by thoughts of the mysterious
Cosette. Cosette is consumed by thoughts of Marius, with whom she has fallen in
love. Valjean realizes that his 'daughter' is changing very quickly but
refuses to tell her anything of her past. In spite of her own feelings for
Marius, Eponine sadly brings him 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. On the eve of the revolution, the students and Javert see the
situation from different viewpoints; Cosette and Marius part in despair of
ever meeting again; Eponine mourns the loss of Marius; and Valjean looks
forward to the security of exile. The Thenardiers, meanwhile, dream of
rich pickings underground from the chaos to come. The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius, noticing that
Eponine has joined the insurrection, sends her with a letter to Cosette,
which is intercepted at the Rue Plumet by Valjean. Eponine decides,
despite what he has said to her, to rejoin Marius at the
barricade. The barricade is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning that
they must give up or die. Gavroche exposes Javert as a police spy. In
trying to return to the barricade, Eponine is shot and killed. Valjean
arrives at the barricade in search of Marius. He is given the chance
to kill Javert but instead lets him go. The students settle down for a night on the barricade and in the quiet
of the night, Valjean prays to God to save Marius from the onslaught which
is to come. The next day, with ammunition running low, Gavroche runs out
to collect more and is shot. The rebels are all killed, including their
leader Enjolras. Valjean escapes into the sewers with the unconscious Marius. After meeting
Thenardier, who is robbing the corpses of the rebels, he emerges into
the light only to meet Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver
the young man to the hospital. Javert decides to let him go and, his
unbending principles of justice shattered by Valjean's own mercy, he
kills himself by throwing himself into the river. A number of Parisian women come to terms with the failed insurrection
and its victims. Unaware of the identity of his rescuer, Marius recovers
in Cosette's care. Valjean confesses the truth of his past to Marius
and insists that after the young couple are married, he must go away
rather than taint the sanctity and safety of their union. At Marius
and Cosette's wedding, the Thenardiers try to blackmail Marius. Thenardier
says that Cosette's "father" is a murderer and as proof produces a ring
which he stole from the corpse in the sewers the night the barricade
fell. It is Marius' own ring and he realizes it was Valjean who rescued
him that night. He and Cosette go to Valjean where Cosette learns for
the first time her own history before the old man dies, joining the
spirits of Fantine, Eponine and all those who died on the barricade. Story summary courtesy of the Broadway Les Miserables
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