Director Jean-Pierre Ameris' (Romantics Anonymous) adapts Victor Hugo's beloved novel for the screen to tell the story of Gwynplaine (Marc-Andre Grondin), the grotesquely disfigured son of a marquis who falls in love with a girl (Christa Theret) he once rescued from certain death, and who inherits his father's seat in parliament after being raised in poverty. Crippled by self-doubt over his hideous visage, Gwynplaine uses his newfound power to preach truth and principal to the powers that be, but finds only tragedy in his search for true love.