Cologne 1402: One evening, there is a knock at the door of the Goldmann family's town house. It is a messenger from the archbishop with an urgent instruction: Madlen, the "secret healer," must go to a woman who is in labor. The circumstances are highly peculiar: Madlen is to be blindfolded so that she does not know in which house the birth is taking place, and she is also required to maintain absolute silence. She manages to bring the child into the world unharmed, but after the first cry of the little girl, guards burst in without warning and seize the newborn from Madlen. Did the archbishop really give this order? Madlen has no time to think. The men return, and she realizes that not only the life of the infant but also that of the mother and her own are seriously at risk.