  A theory of chiral lipid membranes is proposed on the basis of a concise free
energy density which includes the contributions of the bending and the surface
tension of membranes, as well as the chirality and orientational variation of
tilting molecules. This theory is consistent with the previous experiments
[J.M. Schnur \textit{et al.}, Science \textbf{264}, 945 (1994); M.S. Spector
\textit{et al.}, Langmuir \textbf{14}, 3493 (1998); Y. Zhao, \textit{et al.},
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA \textbf{102}, 7438 (2005)] on self-assembled chiral
lipid membranes of DC$_{8,9}$PC. A torus with the ratio between its two
generated radii larger than $\sqrt{2}$ is predicted from the Euler-Lagrange
equations. It is found that tubules with helically modulated tilting state are
not admitted by the Euler-Lagrange equations, and that they are less
energetically favorable than helical ripples in tubules. The pitch angles of
helical ripples are theoretically estimated to be about 0$^\circ$ and
35$^\circ$, which are close to the most frequent values 5$^\circ$ and
28$^\circ$ observed in the experiment [N. Mahajan \textit{et al.}, Langmuir
\textbf{22}, 1973 (2006)]. Additionally, the present theory can explain twisted
ribbons of achiral cationic amphiphiles interacting with chiral tartrate
counterions. The ratio between the width and pitch of twisted ribbons is
predicted to be proportional to the relative concentration difference of left-
and right-handed enantiomers in the low relative concentration difference
region, which is in good agreement with the experiment [R. Oda \textit{et al.},
Nature (London) \textbf{399}, 566 (1999)].
