DIE PÄPSTIN – The Story
In year 814, a girl – Johanna was born to a village priest and a Saxon pagan woman. The child was exceptionally clever and learned to read and write in secret, against her father's wishes. Through a chain of coincidences, Johanna finally got the opportunity to attend the convent school in Dorstadt. But as a girl, she didn't have an easy time there, as hostility grew from all sides.
When her advocate, Rabanus, left the cathedral school, her only confidant was Margrave Gerold. When his wife learned of their mutual affection, she immediately arranged a forced marriage to stop the relationship. A gruesome Norman attack overtook the wedding party in Dorstadt, and miraculously, Johanna was the only one to survive the massacre.
Left to her own devices by fate, she made a solitary decision: she discarded her women's clothing, cut her hair, and from then on pretended to be a man. Taking on the identity of her brother, she enters the Fulda monastery as a monk. Her father's visit threatens to expose her. Rabanus then advises her to leave the monastery with a group of pilgrims heading for Rome.
A decades-long game of hide-and-seek begins, turning Johanna into a hunted woman. Rome is dangerous. Enemies threaten the city. And at the papal court, a powerful enemy is plotting his schemes. Anastasius vehemently pursues his ruthless plan to ascend the papal throne, stopping at nothing. When Pope Sergius's death is imminent, Johanna is able to heal him and thus rises to become the pope's personal physician.
Together with the powerful courtesan Marioza, Anastasius plots a conspiracy to eliminate the pope and his personal physician. But his plan fails again. It is not he, but John Anglicus, who is elected the new pope. Although Gerold, the love of her life, is back by her side by a lucky coincidence, Johanna decides to accept the papacy.
Her actions lead to increasing discontent within her own ranks. Driven by Anastasius's unbridled rage, the situation in the Lateran escalates, so that suddenly it's not just the secret of her identity that's at stake...