Shortly after the death of Charlemagne, a girl called Johanna is born in Ingelheim am Rhein. She is the daughter of a village priest (Iain Glen). He also rules his wife (Jördis Triebel) and family with a rod of iron, though his Saxon wife still secretly worships the pagan god Wōden. Even so, Johanna grows up to be an articulate girl, who intensively studies the Bible, unbeknownst to her father. After her eldest brother's sudden death, their father wants to send his second son Johannes to the cathedral school in Dorestad, but when the teacher Aesculapius (Edward Petherbridge) visits them in Ingelheim, Johanna proves to be far more capable of dealing with the Scriptures than Johannes. Against her father's wishes, Johanna is taught by Aesculapius, who introduces her to literary works such as Homer's ''Odyssey''.