This is a true story about one of the most dramatic transfers of power in nearly 2,000 years. Frustrated with the direction of the Church, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) asks Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) for permission to retire in 2012. However, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome. Behind the walls of the Vatican, a struggle between tradition and progress, sin and forgiveness unfolds as these two very different men confront their pasts in an attempt to find common ground and a future for a billion believers around the world.