The wise and peace-loving Queen Christina (Greta Garbo) has ruled Sweden since the age of 6, when her heroic father died in battle. Pressured to marry her cousin Karl Gustav (Reginald Owen) and produce an heir, the queen slips away incognito and ends up at a country inn, where she meets and falls in love with Antonio (John Gilbert), a Spanish envoy on his way to the palace. However, Count Magnus, himself in love with the queen, does not approve of her foreign lover.