Her existence was a secret. Her name was deleted from the books of history. Yet the life of Joan —who led the Catholic Church under the name of Pope John Anglicus in the 9th century — has become a legend. Joan was born in 814 A.D. She rebels against a predestined and constraining path for her as a woman early in her young life. She is convinced God has planned a different destiny for her. Ultimately, she falls in love with the nobleman Gerold (David Wenham). While he goes to war, she bethinks her inner voice, joins a Benedictine monastery disguised as a man under the name of John. She becomes a physician, goes to Rome, where she wins the favour of the Holy Father (John Goodman) and thus rises ever higher in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.