Contrite priests suddenly bestow Holy Orders on a wretched failure who was expelled from the seminary for lack of a true vocation. He is soon in Rome with his bishop to elect a new Pope. The stymied conclave elects the dedicated new priest: Hadrian VII. The new Pope decides to sell Vatican art treasures to finance feeding the world's poor. He smokes on the throne and entertains old friends like his landlady and new ones like a seminarian who is having a hard go of it until an assassin puts an end to Hadrian VII.