"The foundations of modern knowledge--philosophy, math, astronomy, geography -- were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed....

Quasimodo ventures from his tower to the joyous festival of fools, but the crowd turns cruel and rejects him because of the way he looks. The gypsy Esmeralda rescues him and he finds himself battling to save the people and the city he loves--while reminding us to see people as they are rather than how they appear.