The month is May. The year is 1770. The 14-year old destined to be France's last Queen is already challenging tradition. About to be married off to the heir to the French throne, Marie Antoinette, called "Tonia" since childhood, succeeds in having her way before she even arrives at the glittering gilded cage of Versailles.
The 17-year-old destined to be Tonia's truest friend is already biting her nails as she arrives at Versailles, to attend the Royal nuptials uniting Marie Antoinette with Louis XV's grandson. Louisa, Princess of Lamballe, wanted to stay at the country estate of the doting father-in-law whose son left her a widow with a secret she dreads having uncovered.
The two teenagers meet. A friendship not unlike this era's "Thelma & Louise" forms. Tonia and Louisa's story may be vastly different, but they also meet untimely ends.
Opposites attract.
The free-spirited Dauphiness is as honest as she is funny. It is an ideal balance with the Princess's calm and loyal nature. In a spontaneous ceremony, they become "blood sisters." Louisa shares the cruel truth about what - and who - made her a widow. Tonia shares her frustration over her marriage.
The entrenched old order doesn't take to the Austrian-born upstart with her inborn gift for mimicry, refusal to wear corsets, and indifference to producing an heir. The Court has no idea the real reason for this is the circumcision her husband needs to achieve painless intercourse.
Wildly popular with the world beyond Versailles, Marie Antoinette's every fad and fashion is copied. Criticism at Court grows as she appoints commoners to paint her portraits, arrange her hair, and design her dresses.
1774. King Louis XV's unexpectedly early death elevates a Royal couple far too young and unprepared to rule. Louis XVI is content to be a figurehead on a ship of state veering in ominous directions, while his childless Queen redecorates and entertains lavishly.
A rival for Tonia's affections makes Louisa a "third wheel" at the horse races, card parties, and other gambling pursuits Tonia and "dear Julie" embrace. The swelling critical chorus falls on "Madam Deficit's" deaf ears: isn't her husband the King giving Treasury gold to American colonists fighting to eliminate a King?
Louisa retreats to her father-in-law's estate until the consummated Royal marriage bears fruit and a daughter is born. Tonia transforms from party girl to proud mama. The "blood sisters" reunite.
The son and heir born four years later is sickly. Tonia escapes with him, his sister, and baby brother to the bucolic retreat she's created within Versailles' confines. She never says "Let them eat cake," but her hungry subjects don't believe it.
1783. The King applauds a pioneering balloon flight over Versailles. His Queen mourns their first born son. Her devotion to her other children remains a driving life force as the blood sisters face a bleak future with more laughter than tears.
The first Bastille Day happens on July 14, 1789.
The situation worsens. With their safety at stake, Tonia arranges and carries out - nearly successfully - a Belgian escape thwarted just short of the border.
The chaotic descent into the French Revolution relocates the Royal family to Paris. The downward spiral from house arrest to real thing is ordered by a powerful and bloodthirsty Revolutionary government. They invent the guillotine, a humane execution machine they use on traitors to their causes.
Louisa is taken from the Temple Tower at the start of 1792's "September Massacres". Confronted with the grisly evidence of her BFF's savage end, Marie Antoinette's courage under imprisonment cracks, for the first - and only - time.
January 1783. France's last King is first to go up the guillotine steps. His widow follows him nine months later, at age 38.
