The film is one of the few adaptations to use Victor Hugo's original ending; although Esmeralda is killed by a stray arrow rather than hanged.

A voiceover narration tells us at the end that several years afterward, an excavation group finds the skeletons of Quasimodo and Esmeralda intertwined in an embrace.

Quasimodo (Anthony Quinn), the hunchback of Notre Dame Cathedral, falls in love with the gypsy Esmeralda (Gina Lollobrigida).

When Esmeralda is condemned as a witch by Claude Frollo (Alain Cuny), the priest who longs for her, Quasimodo takes her into the cathedral to save her.

But in a misguided rescue attempt, the people come to free her and Quasimodo defends the cathedral, but they burst through the front door just as soldiers arrive and shoot arrows.