Pope Joan

In 814 A.D. Johanna is condemned to life as a woman.  Her life seems to be predetermined: work, have children and die young.  But Johanna decides to resist – her strict father, the rules of the Church – for the sake of her conviction and her faith, because she senses that her destiny is a different one, that God is showing her a different path.  But the price she will have to pay is a high one.

Johanna attends the cathedral school in Dorstadt and meets Count Gerold, a noble man at the Bishop’s court.  Their friendship develops into love.  When Gerold goes to war, Johanna remembers her destiny.  But she cannot achieve her goal as a woman.  Johanna makes a decision that will have far-reaching consequences: she joins the Benedictine Monastery at Fulda disguised as a man, calling herself Brother Johannes, and lives there as a successful and well-respected doctor.  When her real identity is in danger of being revealed, she flees to Rome.  She meets Gerold there again and realizes that there is one thing she can no longer deny: her love for him.

Johanna continues to move up the church hierarchy and the danger of her being found out becomes greater and greater.  She also increasingly feels the necessity to decide: does she want to give her heart to God or to a man?  But then the decision is taken away from her: when Pope Sergius dies, Johanna is named as his successor.  However, her feelings for Gerold are stronger than her fear of being found out – but Johanna’s enemies are just waiting for a chance to remove her from the throne…