From the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Quasimodo, the hunchback, looks down on the turmoil of Paris with a bitter eye. He is an outsider, tormented and derided because he is deformed and as ugly as a gargoyle. But love for the beautiful Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer, draws him fatally from the safety of isolation into the web of city life. Canon Frollo, the austere priest, is also utterly changed by his obsession with the enchanting girl. The fates of these three characters are inextricably locked together, with terrible consequences for all.