In the far future, The Doctor, Rose and Mickey find themselves aboard a derelict spacecraft drifting in the middle of deep space. Exploring the spacecraft, The Doctor and his companions discover a 18th Century French fireplace and on the other side, The Doctor, Rose and Mickey encounter a 7 year old French girl called Reinette. The Doctor upon discovering the fireplace is a doorway that allows him to time travel to 18th Century France meets Reinette again years later as an adult woman and The Doctor is stunned to discover that Reinette is Madame De Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV. But all hell soon breaks loose when The Doctor, Rose and Mickey learn that clockwork robots killed the spacecraft's crew and used their body parts to repair the spacecraft and that the clockwork robots require Madame De Pompadour's head to finish repairing the ship, but are not ready as Madame De Pompadour is not 37 yet and they plot to behead her on her 37th birthday. As the plot begins to unravel and realizing that the clockwork robots are meddling with history, The Doctor, Rose and Mickey set out to save Madame De Pomadour and put a stop to the clockwork robot's plot.