A retelling and psychological exploration of the extraordinary medieval legend of Pope Gregory, a child conceived in sibling incest, who was later abandoned to the sea and raised abroad to be a monk. After learning his outcast origin, he abandoned the cloister to become a knight errant, traveled afar, won a heroic battle and unsuspectingly married his own mother. Discovering this horror, in remorse and fear for his soul he began a life-long penance on a lonely rock in the sea. Nearly dead after seventeen years, he was chosen to become the wisest and most compassionate pope of all time.