Henri Fortin is a humble man whose life takes him through some of the most important events of contemporary times. As he alternately rises to heroism and sinks to criminal desperation, Fortin’ s existence mirrors the struggle between good and evil that illuminates Victor Hugo’s character, Jean Valjean.

Fortin’s journey brings him into the lives of three people, the sophisticated Jewish Ziman family, who are fleeing the Nazis in Occupied France in 1939. Through them and their introduction of Victor Hugo’s novel into Fortin’s life, the humble man finds a purpose and a path to his existence that has lasting meaning for himself and his persecuted friends.