Presenting a sympathetic portrait of this beautiful, shallow and tragic Queen, Dunlop tells of the jubilant crowds which greeted her on her marriage to the Dauphin in 1773 and how, 20 years later she would appear before another exited crowd, this time baying for her blood. She was accused of adultery, despoiling the public purse and of being the arch-villain of the Old Regime. Her execution was met with delirious joy. Relying largely upon the words of Marie-Antoinette and her contemporaries, Dunlop tells of a child bride, a foolish and giddy 18-year-old Queen of France, spoilt and selfish but showing remarkable and unexpected courage and depth of character in the face of a crisis.