Two unlikely people forge an alliance and a tentative friendship in the dark days of the Paris Commune. A young ballerina is saved from a horrible fate by a deformed recluse deep in the bowels of the Paris Opera House. Together they overcome the deprivations of war, and Louise must learn to understand the paradox that is Erik. Begins ten years before the events in Leroux's book.

Christine is a waitress struggling to make ends meet when a call to jury duty comes as a most inconvenient summons. Though reluctant to participate, she is intrigued by the defendant; a badly deformed man accused of blackmail and murder. Though the world seems to begrudge him his very existence, she begins to feel pity for the accused who is only a man, after all. A man named Erik.