Based on the classic novel, Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, and the classic Broadway stage show of the same name, Les Misérables is the story of Jean Valjean, a prisoner who breaks parole, and the police inspector, Javert, who tries to hunt him down for breaking parole. Valjean tries to help a poor factory worker, Fantine, by saving her child, Cosette, from innkeepers who are holding her captive as a slave. Marius, a war veteran during the battles of post-French Revolution, falls for Cosette, but their lives change forever when the war turns more gruesome than expected.—Michael Dunlap