A drunken English lawyer discovers that a man he once defended is a French aristocrat trying to escape the Revolution. While he envies the man over the love of a woman, his conscience is pricked and he resolves to help him escape the guillotine. Period drama based on Charles Dickens' novel, starring Dirk Bogarde, Dorothy Tutin and Christopher Lee.

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.