An exciting tale of love, jealousy, intrigue, and a merciless vendetta, this is Dumas at his finest. A man is traveling in old Corsica, "the land of the Vendetta." He lodges with the widowed Madame Savilia de Franchi, who has twin sons: peace-loving Louis, studying law in Paris, and the savage but noble Lucien, who lives with her and is going to be "a good Corsican." Their guest learns that these two brothers, apparently so different, were in fact born conjoined; now, whenever Lucien feels pain, Louis experiences it too—no matter the distance between them. On his return to Paris, the narrator meets Louis, and is drawn into an affair that ends in tragedy and revenge.