The year is 1999 and the whole world is going a little bit crazy. As she treads the delicate balance between insanity and faith, Iris Anders finds an unlikely ally in Fr Francis Carlos-Carlos, a young Filipino missionary. Iris, a librarian, finds herself the unwitting recipient of what appear to be the wounds of Christ - the Stigmata. Her husband suspects self-harming; her family says she is having another one of her 'episodes'; her parish priest just wants her gone from his church. Fr Frank, who has recently come from a country where faith is lived, not just observed, has dealt with this sort of thing before but he came to Australia to escape such Penitentes. As Iris struggles to find meaning in her wounds and heretical dreams, the world hears of this 'miracle worker' and beats a path to her door. Saint or fake? Healer or fraud? Even Iris doesn't know.