The death of the previous Pope plunges the Vatican into a 25‑day conclave stalemate, a gridlocked moment that the Mafia backs with strategic influence. The College of Cardinals is persuaded by the Mafia’s tame Cardinal Rocco to elect in absentia their favored candidate, Albini Janez Vajevec, a move Rocco justifies as a bid to protect the Church’s environmental future.
Fr. Rookie, played by Adrian Edmondson, is hard of hearing and records the pope‑elect as “Cardinal Albinizi.” The real Cardinal, David “Dave” Albinizi Janez Vajevec, is presented as an honest parish priest who unexpectedly becomes Pope, taking the name Pope David I. He is an unorthodox figure with a lighthearted interest in cars, women, and rock and roll, a departure from the stern stereotype of a cleric. His past includes work at an orphanage where he strove to share gospel joy with the children, countering the gloom some nuns believed was due.
Inside the Vatican, the new Pope gets along well with Bish Peter Richardson, a trusted security coordinator, and with the nun who brings his meals, the Beautiful Nun Mirta Zečević. He contemplates abdication after a failed assassination attempt but is talked into staying by the nun’s steady faith in him. A journalist questions corruption within the Vatican bank, prompting the Pope to demand access to the accounts. Bish reveals a disk about financial irregularities to the Pope, and this discovery leads to the exposure of gun‑smuggling and stolen merchandise schemes, culminating in the defrocking of Cardinal Rocco Alex Rocco. Rocco’s mafia backers escalate their efforts to remove the Pope he distrusts.
As the intrigue deepens, Monsignor Fitchie Paul Bartel helps Rocco search for blackmail material. They uncover that Albini, before joining the priesthood, fathered a son with American tourist Veronica Dante Beverly D'Angelo. That son is Joe Don Dante Balthazar Getty, now a rising rock star who is dating Vittorio Corelli’s daughter Luccia Khedija Sassi. Corelli disapproves of the match and sends hired thugs to separate them, a plan that spirals into tragedy when a bomb kills Luccia and gravely wounds Joe. Pope David visits Joe in the hospital, grappling with the personal cost of the Vatican’s political games.
The Pope moves to dissolve the Vatican Bank, seen as a Mafia tool, and is soon forced to resign when the affair is exposed. Albini’s backers seize the moment, and Corelli’s candidate is installed as the new Pope’s rival, while Corelli and Albini move into the papal apartments. Albini reunites with Veronica, only to learn the orphanage he cared for has closed. He rushes back to the Vatican to stop the coronation, enlisting Bish’s help. They confront a dying Cardinal Rocco, who is shot by Corelli, and Bish’s intervention delays but cannot fully derail the impending ceremony.
As the situation unfolds, Albinizi hears Rocco’s confession (though interrupted by a phone call from Rocco’s associate) and then sees Bish bound. Bish urges him to stop the coronation rather than rescue him. Monsignor Fitchie frees Bish as Albinizi races to the Sistine Chapel just before the ceremony ends, revealing that the man calling himself Albini is actually Corelli in disguise. Corelli proclaims himself Pope Vittorio I, Emperor of the Vatican, and fires shots into the ceiling, which collapses onto him.
The nun who had served Albini becomes the first female Pope in history, pledging to give the Vatican’s gold to the world’s poor and blessing Albinizi to take a bride. Bish officiates the wedding of Albinizi and Veronica, and together they adopt the children from the orphanage in addition to their own. The film closes on a note of reconciliation and renewed purpose, with the Vatican’s own drama giving way to a hopeful, if unconventional, path forward for its leaders and families.
