Jean Valjean, a good and decent man who has committed a minor crime, is imprisoned but escapes. He is pursued thereafter for years by Javert, the cruel and implacable arm of the law.

Finally released after serving a nineteen-year prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread in order to prevent his sister and her children from starving, Jean Valjean wanders the French countryside embittered and shunned by all because of his record. He is befriended by the Bishop, but Valjean repays his kindness by robbing him. Caught by the guards, Valjean is saved when the Bishop testifies that the stolen goods were a gift. This good deed transforms Valjean, and five years later finds him the leading citizen and mayor of a small town. The inspector of police in the town is Javert, a former prison warden, who suspects the mayor of being the infamous convict Jean Valjean. Hounded by his tormentor, Valjean is returned to prison, but manages to escape and save Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of one of his factory workers, from a life of forced labor. Establishing himself in Paris, Valjean, with Cosette as his daughter, lives a life of peace until the revolution. After a series of violent incidents, Valjean saves Marius, Cosette's fiancé, from death and then, wounded and bedraggled, comes face to face with Javert who, in a moment of kindness, grants Valjean his freedom. Marius and Cosette marry and soon after Valjean, weakened by his many hardships, dies.