Marie Antoinette arrives at Versailles as a teenager, sent from Austria to cement an alliance through marriage to the future Louis XVI. The film traces her rise from foreign bride regarded with suspicion by the French court to the most conspicuous figure in Europe, following her through the rituals, etiquette, and extravagance of Versailles that both defined her public image and eventually turned public opinion against her. It covers her struggles to produce an heir, her reputation for lavish spending on fashion and gambling, and the growing resentment among ordinary French citizens as the monarchy's finances collapsed. As the Revolution gathers force, the narrative follows her from the palace to imprisonment and finally to the guillotine, using portraits, palace interiors, and historical accounts to reconstruct a life that became a symbol of royal excess. It is a straightforward account of how a princess became one of history's most vilified queens, and asks how much of that reputation she actually earned.