London, 1782. Tensions are running high in the war between France and Great Britain. The life of young woman Lucie Manette is turned upside down when she receives a message from Paris: her father, presumed dead for nearly twenty years, might still be alive. The messenger—the idealistic French emigrant Charles Darnay—is arrested and accused of treason. Lucie enlists the help of the brilliant but unpredictable young lawyer Sydney Carton to secure Darnay's release, hoping that he will lead her to Paris to track down her father.