A Westphalian town, 1818. In a sparsely furnished room, a fragile figure lies on a bed. A Catholic nun, the center of a religious cult permeated by superstition, deep faith and irrational hope. Sister Anna Katharina Emmerick, who bears the irregularly bleeding wounds of Christ, the stigmata. A mystic and visionary. Though weak and bandaged, she is alert, eloquent, even witty. And she is ready to dictate her visions to a celebrated author, a man with a past that could hardly be more different than hers: former bon-vivant and ladies' man Clemens von Brentano. The Prussian poet, coming from a secular tradition of Enlightenment and Reason, has been seized by a romantic passion for religious fervor. He has decided to no longer be an artist, but to put his pen at the service of Sister Anna and record her visions. His meeting with the charismatic mystic will plunge Brentano into the center of a major political and religious controversy, and will nearly cost the young nun her life...