Masterful tale unfolded in the carnage, horror and idealism of the French Revolution. Political upheaval frames the story, but Dickens delights in indicting aristocratic tyranny and revolutionary excesses. A young Englishman, Sydney Carton, gets swept up in the chaos and ends by heroically sacrificing himself. For the love of a woman he can never have, he exchanges places with his friend and twin, Charles Darnay, sentenced to death on the guillotine and goes to a "far, far better place."