It's the fall of 1965 when 28-year-old Sister Francesca leaves her small town convent in upstate New York to study theology at a large university in the Bronx. She expects to face demanding professors and challenging classes; she doesn't expect to become entangled in the controversies surrounding Vatican II. What she least expects is involvement in the mysterious death of her new Superior, Mother Ignatius.

Was the old woman a victim of greedy neighborhood businessmen? Or was she simply in the way of unstoppable changes in the Church?

In the process of investigating her Superior's murder, Sister Francesca risks her life and must come to terms with the changing world around her, a challenge to both her faith and her vows.