Edmond Dantes, a young sailor from Marseille, is being dragged in chains to the Chateau d'If, a state prison. He protests his innocence, but the jailors laugh and torment him before locking him up in solitary confinement. A few short hours before, Dantes had returned to Marseille from a voyage at sea and been reunited with his fiancée, Mercedes. Her father, Pierre Morrel, promoted Dantes to captain as a wedding gift to the couple. Into the middle of this celebration came the soldiers to arrest Dantes. He is sure he has done nothing that is against the law, and promises Mercedes he will return soon. Then abruptly we realize that the story is being narrated by a bunch of high school kids, who are studying the book "The Count of Monte Cristo" in order to do a play. In their squabblings about dramatic interpretation, the kids summarize the more complicated parts of the story.