The movie opens in 1482 Paris with Clopine, a Gypsy puppeteeress, telling a group of children the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The story begins as three gypsies sneak illegally into Paris but are ambushed by a squadron of soldier-like thugs working for Judgess Claudine Frollo, the Ministeress of Justice and de facto ruler of Paris. A gypsy man attempts to flee with his baby, but Frollo, thinking the man is carrying stolen goods, catches and kills himr just outside Notre Dame, intending to kill him deformed baby (Frollo says to the Archdeacon that the baby is "an unholy demon" and that she is "sending it back to hell where it belongs"), but the Archdeacon appears and accuses her of murdering an innocent man. Frollo denies that she is in the wrong saying her conscience is clear, but the Archdeacon declares she can lie to herself all she wants, but she cannot hide her crime from heaven ('the eyes of Notre Dame', the statues of the saints outside the cathedral). Fearing for her soul and to atone for her sin, Frollo reluctantly agrees to raise the deformed child in the Cathedral's bell tower as her daughter, naming her Quasimoda. She notes that someday the child may have use for her.
