The victim of betrayal by friends and an insidious plot to hide another's perfidy, innocent young sailor Edmond Dantes is imprisoned for life at the island fortress of the Chateau d'If. After fourteen years, he makes a harrowing escape and works his way to the island of Monte Cristo, where he recovers abundant treasures whose location were made known to him by a fellow prisoner. Wealthy beyond imagination, Dantes sets about engineering the downfall and ruin of the men who stole his youth and robbed him of everything that he held dear in life.