Edmond Dantès is imprisoned in the gloomy fortress of If after being charged with a crime he did not commit. He discovers there that the Isle of Monte Cristo is home to a vast treasure trove, and he decides to utilise this information to not only organise his escape but also the destruction of the three men who are to blame for his imprisonment. When it was first serialised in the 1840s, Dumas' epic tale of agony and vengeance--which was based on a true story of wrongful imprisonment--was a hugely successful work of literature.