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.