Morrel is desperate as the deadline for the payment of his bills draws near. He goes to every business associate who might offer him a loan, but no one is willing to take a chance on him. Down to his last possible hope, Morrel travels to Paris to meet with Danglars. Danglars was once Morrel’s employee in charge of the merchandise that was on the Pharaon. After Dantes was imprisoned, Danglars told Morrel that he no longer wanted to work for him. Morrel encouraged Danglar to seek his fortune elsewhere. Now that Danglars is one of the richest men in Paris, Morrel humbles himself as he appeals to Danglars for a loan. Unfortunately, even Danglars turns him down.

With nowhere else to turn, Morrel returns home more depressed than ever. He sees no way out except through death. He writes a will and then plans his suicide. His wife guesses what her husband is doing and calls for their son, Maximilian, to come home from his military post. Maximilian has a talk with his father but to no avail. His father has made up his mind and will not be stopped.

On the fateful day when the money is due, Julie, Morrel’s daughter, receives a letter from Sinbad the Sailor that instructs her to go to a specific location to retrieve a red pouch she will find on the mantel in a small apartment. The apartment is the place where Dantes’s father used to live. The red pouch once belonged to Morrel. He had once before left it on the mantel, filled with money for the old man. Julie retrieves the pouch and rushes home. She hands the contents to her father. Inside the pouch is a receipt indicating that all Morrel’s debts have been paid. There is also a large jewel with a note saying it is to finance Julie’s dowry.

Shortly afterward, Emmanuel, Julie’s fiancé, arrives with the extraordinary news that a ship—the exact duplicate of the Pharaon—is just arriving in the port. Onboard are the members of Morrel’s former crew.

Once again, Dantes disappears. To himself, he murmurs that this is the end of his repayment of goodness. From this point forward, his main focus will be on revenge.

The story jumps ahead ten years to 1838 and begins to focus on Baron Franz d’Epinay (the son of the assassinated General Quesnel). Franz wants to hunt and is taken to the island of Monte Cristo. There he meets Dantes, who still calls himself Sinbad the Sailor. Before Franz is taken to the mansion Dantes has built inside the caves where he uncovered his treasure, Franz must be blindfolded. Dantes wants no one to know where the entrance of the cave is. Once inside, Franz is allowed to remove the blindfold, and he is astonished by the wealth he finds inside. The walls are covered in expensive tapestries and animal skins. On the floors are plush rugs from Turkey. The lamps are made of exquisite Italian glass. The walls are lined in beautiful marble statues.

Dantes talks about his travels. He is especially fond of the Middle East. When he is finished with his business in France, Dantes says, he will sail off toward the East and never return.

After having dined with Dantes, Franz awakens the next morning on the beach and does not remember how he got there. He and Dantes had taken hallucinogenic drugs the night before. Franz searches for the entrance of the cave so he might return, but he cannot find it. So he leaves for the mainland of Italy to be with his friend, Albert, the son of Fernand and Mercedes.

Albert and Franz are in Rome for the holidays that precede the Catholic observance of Lent. Crowds of people are in the city, and the two men are warned about bandits who might rob them, especially if they go out at night. To convince them of the danger, the manager of the hotel, Signor Pastrini, tells the men the story of Luigi Vampa, an Italian bandit.

Vampa was at one time a shepherd in love with a girl named Teresa. When she was kidnapped, Vampa killed the man who tried to take her away. Later Vampa discovered that the man he murdered was the leader of a gang of bandits. So Vampa found the group and became their new leader.

Albert and Franz leave to see the sights of Rome. While at the Coliseum, Franz becomes separated from Albert and sits down to rest. Franz notices a figure approaching not too far away. The man looks somewhat familiar, though a close inspection of his features is impossible in the dull light. However, Franz recognizes his voice as that of the man he knows as Sinbad the Sailor. He listens to his conversation with someone who arrives a few minutes later.

The conversation consists of a plan to save someone called Peppino, whose only crime is having provided food to a bandit. That bandit is the man to whom Sinbad the Sailor (Dantes) is talking. The bandit wants to charge the police with weapons as Peppino is about to be beheaded. Dantes tells him his plan is to use money to free Peppino. They decide to follow Dantes’s plan.

The next evening, Albert and Franz attend the opera. There, Franz sees the man he knows as Sinbad the Sailor. They do not speak to one another because they are quite separated, but one of the women in their group says she thinks Dantes looks like a vampire because his skin is so pale.

Later that night, Albert and Franz discuss their lack of a carriage for the festivities of the next day. They decide to dress in costume and ride in a cart pulled by an ox. However, Signor Pastrini tells them that another guest across the hall, a man he refers to as the Count of Monte Cristo, would like for them to join him in his carriage.

In the morning, Franz reads a bulletin about the man Peppino, who is to be executed that day. Peppino’s crime was to offer food to the bandit Vampa. Franz recalls the conversation he overheard at the Coliseum and realizes that Sinbad was talking to Vampa that night. When Albert is dressed, he and Franz walk across the hall to meet their benefactor, whose carriage they will be sharing. Franz is stunned to find out that the Count of Monte Cristo is none other than the man he had previously known as Sinbad the Sailor.