The novel tells about the tragic fate of the Queen of France, executed in 1793 by a decision of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Careless, feminine, trusting, Marie Antoinette was emboldened by the admiration of the courtiers. She thought of her life as a series of pleasures, unaware that outside the Paris Opera House there was another world mired in poverty and hatred. And this world fell on her in the face of the French Revolution, declared the focus of all vices and threw under the knife of the guillotine. It is to such exceptions that the work of Zweig, a thoughtful, honest historian, a subtle psychologist and a wonderful storyteller, belongs.