Set against the background of the French Revolution and based on Victor Hugo's classic novel this is the story of Jean Valjean who is sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread and is released after nineteen years. He meets and cares for a beautiful but poverty-stricken young girl named Fantine who has daughter Cosette. After Fantine's death Valjean brings Cosette up but he is haunted by Javert - a policeman whose search for Valjean has become an obsession.

Mireille, a Frenchwoman, marries a westernized Turkish diplomat and, thinking that she will live a dream life in an Arabian Nights setting, follows him back to his native country, only to discover that, in a staunchly traditional society, she will not be a free woman there any longer.