Our story begins in Naples, with a girl, a creepy family tradition and villain stepped right out of a Disney movie.

Enrichetta was born in 1821, she is the daughter of a Marshal of the Neapolitan Army and a Palermitan noblewoman. She is a sweet and tenderhearted girl, with a penchant for romanticism and a passion for literature. Sadly for her, she is the fifth of seven daughters, and was born into a family that had the custom of forcing all of their daughters, except for the first born, to become nuns. Although a few of her sisters managed to escape this gruesome fate, Enrichetta wasn’t so lucky. Her first suitor left because her dowry was too small, a second suitor was chased away because he was deemed to be too jealous. And so, when Enrichetta’s father died, albeit being still an adolescent, she had no marital prospect in sight, and this was a problem for her mother who needed to remarry fast to avoid economic difficulties. She thus begins all the necessary paperwork to make Enrichetta a nun, without consulting her daughter first. A close relative takes pity on the girl and warns her. Enrichetta tries to refuse and locks herself in her temporary residence, one of her married sisters’ houses, but it is all in vain. At the time, the law declared that the parents could coerce daughters into the nunnery, regardless of their age. Teresa, Enrichetta’s mum, resorts to the police accusing her daughter of insubordination. Enrichetta has a choice: she is either to be personally escorted by the police to a convent in Reggio, or she can voluntarily go to the convent of San Gregorio Armeno in Naples. Given her options she ‘decides’ to go to the convent in Naples.

She has to start the novitiate to be admitted to the convent. They cut her hair, they change her clothes and, in 1849 she takes her vows. At the nunnery she feels like a fish out of water. Not only did she not want to become a nun, but being so cultured and passionate about studying, she finds herself living amongst illiterate nuns which is pure torture for her. She is quickly singled out and having done a job that exposes her to the public does not help her cause. A ray of hope shines on her when Pio IX is elected as the new Pope. He was supposed to be a liberal Pope. Enrichetta finds the courage and sends him a petition to be freed or at least a temporary reprieve for health issues. Anything that would allow her to leave the convent. The Pope would have even allowed it, were it not for the archbishop of Neaples Riario Sforza. He vetos the nulla osta. From this moment on, the archbishop will persecute Enrichetta doing anything in his power to prevent her freedom.