Thirty years after their first adventures in The Three Musketeers, we find Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan in very different situations, now. Athos has settled down at his own estate. Porthos married a rich widow, and is now a Baron. Aramis joined a monastery, and is now the Bishop of Vannes. D'Artagnan alone remains a Musketeer for the king, and is now captain of the very force he so longed to join all those years ago.

In The Man in the Iron Mask, Dumas rounds out his Musketeers into probing, multifaceted characters. Each now has a wealth of experience behind each of his actions. This is no simple adventure tale. It is political intrigue at its finest.