Three extraordinary characters caught in a web of fatal obsession are at the center of Hugo's novel. The grotesque hunchback Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre - Dame, owes his life to the austere archdeacon, Claude Frollo, who in turn is bound by a hopeless passion to the gypsy dancer Esmeralda. She, meanwhile, is bewitched by a handsome, empty-headed officer, but by an unthinking act of kindness wins Quasimodo's selfless devotion.