PROLOGUE: 1815, DIGNE

Jean Valjean was released from prison 19 years of being a galley slave. He gets a yellow paper that he must show people, which condemns him to be an outcast. Only the Bishop treats him kindly. Valjean steals some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by police, and is supprised when the Bishop lies to the police and said he gave them to him, and hands him some silver candle sticks. with this the Bishop says "i have bought your soul."

Javjean changes his Name to Monsieur Madeleine. He has become both a factory owner and Mayor of M-SUR-M. 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 her daughter, Cosette, Fantine sells her hair, and then sells herself. She gets into a fight with a customer and is about to be taken to prison by Javert. When The Mayor arrives and demands she be released.

The Mayor then rescues a man pinned down by a cart. Javert is reminded of the strength of Jean Valjean, a exconvict who he has been tracking for years, but Javert 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 by showing his branded arm.

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 a slave with the Thenardiers who run an inn, abusing the little girl whom they use as a personal slave while giving everything to 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

Among the street gangs is one led by Thenardier and his wife, which sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert. He does not recognize Valjean until after he has made his escape. The Thenardiers' daughter Eponine, who is secretly in love with Marius, agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.

At a political meeting in a small cafe, a group of students prepare for the revolution they are sure it will erupt. The students led by Enjolras, stream out into the streets to whip up popular support. Only Marius is distracted by Cosette.

Cosette is consumed by thoughts of Marius, which she has fallen in love with. Valjean realizes that Cosette 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. Valjean convinced it was Javert who was lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to go to England. The students and Javert see the situation from their different viewpoints; Cosette and Marius part are unhappy that they might not see each other. Eponine mourns the loss of Marius. Valjean looks forward to the security of England. The Thenardiers dream of the rich pickings underground from the revolution.

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 Plummet by Valjean. Eponine decides, despite what he has said to her, to join 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 by saving Marius. Valjean arrives at the barricades 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 M. Gillenormond. Javert decides to let him go and, his unbending principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean's own mercy, he kills himself by throwing himself into the river. 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. At Marius' and Cosette's wedding the Thenardiers try to blackmail Marius. Thenardier says Cosette's "father" is a murderer and, as proof, produces a ring, which he stole from the corpse in the sewers the night the barricades 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 of her own history before the old man dies.