The beautiful Jeanette Du Barry attracts the attention of King Louis XV of France and later gains status in his court when her cousin, Jean Du Barry, marries her to the ungainly Count Guillaume Du Barry.  The king chooses her as his favorite, and she is content with a shallow but glittering existence until she falls in love with Cossé-Brissac, a soldier.

Jean, who bears ill will towards his cousin, attempts to expose the countess' affair with Brissac, but the king refuses to believe him and, in fact, banishes him from the court.  With Louis' death and the subsequent outbreak of the French Revolution, Jean incites the mob against Madame Du Barry, and she is sentenced to the guillotine.