One wants to restore the image of the Church, gain back the community's trust. And as you know, this part of town has long been resistant to social progress. Otherwise Sister Bernadine wouldn't need to work so hard.

Sister Bernie D'Amato doesn't look like a nun. In an oversize Bob Marley T-shirt, she smokes pot, befriends local gangs and passes out condoms to the Ukrainian prostitutes who cruise around their New Jersey slum.

When the women's shelter Bernie runs comes under threat from a property developer, she vows to fight back, and recruits a teenage X-Factor wannabe...