In the film's prologue, Deloris Wilson is a young student at a Parochial school; she seems more focused on music groups and being the class clown than her studies. As an adult, she is a lounge music at a nightclub in Reno, Nevada, performing under the name Deloris Van Cartier. One night, she witnesses her Gangster boyfriend Vince LaRocca summary execution his chauffeur as an Informant. Lieutenant Eddie Souther persuades her to go into a Witness protection with Saint Katherine's Parish, a convent in a run-down San Francisco neighborhood, as her safe house. The stoic Reverend Mother finds Deloris uncouth, but Monsignor O'Hara, the neighborhood priest, persuades her to accept her.