1. The Count of Monte Cristo The Old Port of Marseille, France

2. The Exposition Edmond Dantès, a promising young sailor, skillfully docks the three-masted ship, the Pharaon, in Marseilles after its captain died en route home. As a reward, Dantès is promised a captainship, but before he can claim his new post and be married to his fiancée, Mercédès', a conspiracy of four jealous men arrange for him to be seized and secretly imprisoned in solitary confinement in the Chateau d'If, a prison from which no one has ever escaped.

3. View of the "Petit Nice" on the Corniche with Frioul and Chateau d'If in the background.

4. The four men responsible are: Fernand Mondego, who is jealous of Mercédès' love for Dantès Danglars, the treasurer of the Pharaon, who covets Dantès' promised captainship Caderousse, an unprincipled neighbor Villefort, a prosecutor who knows that Dantès is carrying a letter addressed to Villefort's father  The old man, Nortier, is a Bonapartist who would be imprisoned by the royalist regime if not for his son's, Villefort's, influence. Villefort fears this letter might damage his position, so he makes sure that no one hears about Dantès or the letter again.

5. Chateau d'If

6. In the Chateau d'If For many years, Dantès barely exists in his tiny, isolated cell; he almost loses his mind and his will to live until one day he hears a fellow prisoner burrowing nearby. He too begins digging, and soon he meets an old Abbé Faria who knows the whereabouts of an immense fortune, one that used to belong to an immensely wealthy Italian family (Spada).

7. Dantes Learns

8. Dantès and the Abbé continue digging for several years, and from the Abbé, Dantès learns history, literature, science, and languages, but when at last they are almost free, the Abbé dies. Dantès hides his body, then sews himself in the Abbé's burial sack. The guards arrive, carry the sack outside, and heave the body far out to sea.

9. Rebirth Dantès manages to escape and is picked up by a shipful of smugglers, whom he joins until he can locate the island where the treasure is hidden. Dantes & Jacapo

10. Isle of Monte Cristo Monte Cristo is Italian for "The mountain of Christ", which has led some to believe it is the reason Dumas picked it for the book.

11. Abbé Busoni He considers his fortune a gift from God, given to him for the sole purpose of rewarding those who have tried to help him and, more important, punishing those who have hurt him. Disguising himself as an Italian priest who answers to the name of Abbé Busoni, he travels back to Marseilles and visits Caderousse, who is now struggling to make a living as an innkeeper. From Caderousse he learns the details of the plot to frame him. In addition, Dantès learns that his father has died of grief in his absence and that Mercédès has married Fernand Mondego.

12. Most frustrating, he learns that both Danglars and Mondego have become rich and powerful and are living happily in Paris. As a reward for this information, and for Caderousse's apparent regret over the part he played in Dantès's downfall, Dantès gives Caderousse a valuable diamond. Before leaving Marseilles, Dantès anonymously saves Morrel from financial ruin by disguising himself as a banker and buying up his debt.

13. Ten years later... Dantès emerges in Rome, calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo. He seems to be all knowing and unstoppable. In Rome Dantès ingratiates himself to Albert de Morcerf, son of Fernand Mondego and Mercédès, by saving him from bandits.

14. Carnival

15. Return for Vengeance In return for the favor, Albert introduces Dantès to Parisian society. None of his old cohorts recognize the mysterious count as Edmond Dantès, though Mercédès does.

16. Vengeance or Justice? Dantès is thus able to insinuate himself effortlessly into the lives of Danglars, Mondego, and Villefort. Armed with damning knowledge about each of them that he has gathered over the past decade, Dantès sets an elaborate scheme of revenge into motion.