19世紀のフランス。パンを盗んだ罪で19年間の服役生活を送ったジャン・バルジャンは、ついに仮釈放されたものの、世間の風は冷たく、再び盗みを働いてしまう。しかし、その罪を見逃してくれた司教の温かい真心に触れて、彼は更生を心に誓う。名前もマドレーヌと改めて、こつこつと善行を積み重ねた彼は、やがて世間の人望を集める市長の座にまで上り詰めるが、昔の彼を知るジャベール警部が執拗にその後をつきまとう。
ある日、いつもの様に街を散歩していたチャーリーの耳に赤ん坊の泣き声が聞こえてきた。辺りを見回すとまだ生まれたばかりの赤ん坊が街頭に捨てられている。どうしたものかと抱き上げた彼の目の前に、パトロール中の警官が通りかかった。警官は彼が赤ん坊を捨てにきたと勘違いし、目を光らせている。仕方なく彼は、その赤ん坊を自分のボロ・アパートに連れて帰った。それから5年後－－その子はチャーリーの仕事を手伝う程成長していた。
A pregnant teen allows her mother to pass her secret baby off as her own.
On America's frontier, a St. Louis woman marries a New Mexico cattleman who is seen as a tyrant by the locals.
A Victorian-era woman struggles to break free of the moral codes established by society and enforced by her father.
In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne and kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love. After Dimmesdale must go away for a time to England, he returns to discover that Hester has given birth to their child and is the focus of local censure.
Young vivacious Billie uses her charms on influential businessman Glenn Abbott in hopes of getting her secret fiancée Gil a diplomatic appointment. Meanwhile Gil's affections meander to beautiful ingenue Kentucky, Billie's best friend.
Kunal endeavours indefatigably to win his mother's endearment but is stunned to know that he is a byproduct of a gang rape and he resembles one of the assailants. Now spruced up to take revenge against the savages who are now bigtime officials who remain assured that having no traces of a crime of yore can never stop them.
The stern, but kind-hearted, Kristiana from the country takes place as a maid with the Larsson family in Stockholm, previously (in)famous for its rapid turnover of housemaids.
A rural Maine farmer fights for custody of the boy who he's raised as his own.
An American lawyer's wife is reunited with her child and his father, an English nobleman.
During the Spanish occupation of Naples, the people led by Tommaso Aniello - known as "Masaniello" - plot against the Viceroy. The Viceroy's son, under another name, has a son from Masaniello's sister, but his father has already planned a marriage for him with a Spanish patrician against his wishes.
A restless woman seems unable to leave her husband or her lover.