"Valjean's daughter Cosette, now eighteen, has married her beloved Marius and is blissfully happy. But Cosette's new-found contentment is soon threatened by her husband's close association with Amedee, under whose influence he evolves from a loving husband into an uncaring adulterer. While Marius plunges deeper into the underworld of Paris, Cosette turns to the mysterious Verjat for solace." "A plot hatched during Mardi Gras ultimately sees Marius deported to the penal colony Valjean had been condemned to years before. Cosette is distraught, believing her errant husband dead, but her friend Verjat, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Inspector Javert, embarks upon a quest for the truth - and his own redemption."--BOOK JACKET.