In 1517, Martin Luther tacked 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, condemning the sale of Indulgences and sparking the Protestant Reformation. By challenging papal authority and rejecting the corrupt practices, rituals, and non-scriptural doctrines of over a thousand years of Catholic dogma, he regraded the path to salvation for more than half the world’s Christians.
When Martin married an excommunicated nun in 1525, he also set the model for clerical marriage, but Katharina von Bora’s idea of a good wife was closer to today’s feminists than the obedient spouse Martin expected. Katie’s struggles, between her husband’s reforms and her Catholic roots, compel her to betray Martin to save the soul of their child. Indulgence is the story of their journey to find God’s grace and forgiveness from each other.