Fourteen-year-old Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna Habsburg (Kirsten Dunst) is the beautiful, charming, and naive archduchess of Austria, youngest of Empress Maria Theresa's (Marianne Faithfull) daughters. In 1770, the only one left unmarried among her sisters, she is sent by her mother to marry the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XVI of France (Jason Schwartzman), to seal an alliance between the two rival countries. Marie Antoinette travels to France, relinquishing all connections with her home country, including her pet Pug "Mops", and meets the King Louis XV of France (Rip Torn) and her future husband, Louis Auguste. The two arrive at the Palace of Versailles, which was built by the King's great-grandfather. They are married at once, and are encouraged to produce an heir to the throne as soon as possible; but the next day it is reported to the king that "nothing happened" on the wedding night.
In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the court at the Palace of Versailles still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a mere twenty miles away. The routines are seen through the eyes of the young Sidonie Laborde, who serves Queen Marie Antoinette.
Jeanne de Saint-Rémy de Valois, orphaned at an early age, is determined to reclaim her royal title and the home taken from her family when she was a child. When she is rebuffed by Marie Antoinette and fails to achieve her goal through legal channels, she joins forces with the arrogant, well-connected gigolo Rétaux de Villette and her own wayward, womanizing husband Nicholas. They concoct a plan to earn her enough money to purchase the property.
In Vienna, 15-year-old Marie Antoinette (Norma Shearer) is informed by her mother, Empress Marie Therese of Austria (Alma Kruger), that Marie is to marry the future King of France, the Dauphin Louis XVI (Robert Morley). The young princess is excited to meet her future husband and live as a queen, but the Dauphin she married is actually a shy man, more at home with locksmithing than attending parties at the court at Versailles. After they are married, Marie tries desperately to please her husband, and after some trepidation, the Dauphin realizes he can trust Marie and tells her he cannot produce heirs. Without children to occupy her time and attention, Marie is bored and associates with the power-hungry Duc d'Orleans (Joseph Schildkraut), even though the Dauphin does not like him.
Le film évoque les derniers jours de Marie-Antoinette d'Autriche interprétée par Ute Lemper, de son procès à son exécution. Il fut tourné lors des célébrations du bicentenaire de la Révolution française. Sur un scénario d'Alain Decaux et d'André Castelot reposant sur les minutes du procès de la reine, L'Autrichienne est en grande partie un huis clos (scènes du procès, et à la Conciergerie), ponctué de séquences en flash-back.
Le film porte une vision des évènements de 1789-1793 et de leurs conséquences avec une bienveillante compassion pour la reine (Michèle Morgan), sensible, superbe dans sa splendeur et vulnérable dans son intimité, déchirée entre sa fidélité au roi (Jacques Morel) et sa passion pour Fersen (Richard Todd).
L'aventurière Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, descendante (par la main gauche) du roi de France Henri II, et qui se prétend « comtesse de la Motte », imagine un plan tortueux pour voler un magnifique collier de diamants que la reine Marie-Antoinette a refusé d'acheter aux joaillers Boehmer et Bassange. (adaptation du fait historique affaire du collier de la reine)