Before the opera came the Young Phantom...The tale of the murderous Phantom of the Opera and his addiction to Christine is one that is known around the world. But the early years of the horribly disfigured Erik remain shrouded in mystery. His life begins in a lonely tavern on a deserted, French road. An emergency birth and the only help available is from the man-midwife, Père Lapôtre. Unskilled and unfeeling, Lapôtre's gruesome attempt at the child's delivery dooms the child to grow up to be the one called the Phantom.Rejected by his parents, only Françoise truly cares for him. When his mother reclaims him, it is only to humiliate and punish him for sentencing her to a life of pain and misery. Cast out again to fend for himself, he embarks on a life of loneliness and danger which takes him to the other side of the world. He returns to France where he seeks human love only to find it is written that he is not made to know human happiness.