In 1815 France, convict Jean Valjean is released on parole by prison guard Javert after serving a 19-year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread as well as repeated escape attempts. After several months of drifting around France, Valjean is offered food and shelter by the Bishop of Digne, but steals his silver during the night. He is caught by the authorities, but the Bishop lies by saying that the silver was given as a gift, and secures Valjean's release. Touched by the Bishop's love, grace and generosity, Valjean breaks his parole and vows to start an honest life under a new identity. Javert swears he will bring the escaped convict to justice.
Eight years later in 1823, Valjean has become a wealthy factory owner and mayor of the small town of Montreuil-sur-Mer. A young woman named Fantine, one of his workers, is discovered to be sending money to her illegitimate daughter, Cosette, who lives with the unscrupulous Thénardiers and their daughter Éponine, and is dismissed by the foreman. Left with no alternative, Fantine turns to prostitution. During an argument with an abusive customer, Javert, now a police inspector, arrests Fantine, but Valjean intercedes and takes her to a hospital where she is diagnosed with a terminal case of tuberculosis.
Later, Valjean…show more content… Everyone is killed by government troops in the final assault on the street barricades, but Marius is saved when Valjean drags his unconscious body into the sewers. Thénardier, scavenging the dead bodies, steals Marius's ring. Valjean recovers and escapes the sewers carrying Marius, but is confronted at the exit by Javert. Javert threatens to shoot Valjean if he refuses to surrender, but Valjean ignores him. Unable to reconcile the conflict between his civil and moral duties, two things which he always considered the same, Javert commits suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Seine
