An unflinching and searing drama recounting the mystery shrouding the events as told by their ultimate witness: Cardinal Benelli, who engineered John Paul I's ascent. This provocative thriller explores the machinations of power amid crises of faith and the struggle to conceal the truth at any cost.

It's 1978, and a little-known country priest is crowned Pope John Paul I in an uneasy compromise. Just 33 days later, before he can set his liberal reforms into place, "the Smiling Pope" is found dead: one day after he threatened to remove three prominent Cardinals from their posts. No investigation or autopsy is performed, and a Vatican press release about the cause of his death is later proven to be, in large part, false.