Pope Rodrigo's eldest son Cesare, forced to follow his father into the church and newly made the Archbishop of Valencia, chafes at his ecclesiastical role and fumes with jealousy and resentment at the way that his foolish brother has been chosen for the military greatness he desired.

For a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die: Pope Joan, the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Cross paints a sweeping portrait of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept.