Chosen to be the bride of the young King of France, Charles, Isabella, a princess from the German duchy of Bavaria, is welcomed to the most magnificent court of Europe. She spends idyllic years with a loving husband and doting children. But the country is ripe with intrigues and political schemes hatched by the king's ambitious uncles and brother, all of them trying to take advantage of the still simmering war between France and England for their own personal gain.

A drama enfolds that will forever change Isabella's life and reputation. After a first attack of folly, Charles falls deeper and deeper into insanity. Desperate and alone, Isabella finds refuge in her brother-in-law's love. When Louis is murdered she becomes a pawn in the political intrigues that are ripping France apart and her worst instincts take over as she abandons herself to a life of greed, sex, pleasures, and selfishness. She becomes "Isabeau of Bavaria" – a foreigner in the eyes of her people – dishonoring her husband and herself when she declares her son Charles, the rightful future king of France, to be illegitimate.

When she dies, a few years after her husband, and when her son at last does become Charles VII, nobody remembers the gracious princess from Germany who enchanted them all on her wedding day at the side of the young King. They think only of the corrupted woman whose name has become synonymous with depravity and blind ambition.