France, 1788. Edmond Dantès, a Haitian of African descent and Parisian citizen has been sentenced to a life of hell at Château d'If for treason against the Ancien Régime. Once a man of faith, Edmond believes he's been abandoned by God, and the only thing that keeps him going is his deep hatred of those who he believes have framed him. Faria, an older prisoner who becomes a mentor to Edmond, confesses, "I am not flesh of this realm. Your lust for revenge drew me here."

Together, they escape the prison and return to Saint Domingue, where the smell of rebellion is thick in the air. Edmond, once an enslaved man himself, thought he had escaped the colonized land and his past life for good, only to return as the wealthy and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo. In pursuit of his enemies - including Mercedes, once his fiancée - he finds his careful rage growing only more reckless and ravenous. Haydee, a young revolutionist, tries to use his fury for good, while Faria, drunk off the misery Edmond has caused, hungers for the fresh taste of innocent blood. As Edmond's enemies begin to catch on to the count's true identity, and the fight for liberation from the French colonists swells to a pop, Edmond must reckon with the deal he's made with Faria. Is it any more sinister - or any different - than the pact he's made with his own inner demons?