During the sixth century, women are afforded few choices in life: prostitution, motherhood or the cloister. Only the latter offers them any kind of independence. By the end of the century, even this is eroding as the church begins to eject women from the clergy. Craving the legitimacy thwarted by her bastard status, Clotild seeks to become the next abbess of the female Monastery of the Holy Cross, the most famous of the women's cloisters of the early Middle Ages. When the bishop of Poitiers blocks her appointment and seeks to control the nunnery himself, Clotild masterminds an escape, leading a group of uncloistered nuns on a dangerous pilgrimage to beg her royal relatives to intercede on their behalf. But the bishop refuses to back down, and a bloody battle ensues.