What is the main conflict in Pope Joan by Donna Cross?

The infant Joan of Ingleheim is born in the year 814 to a Saxon woman named Gudrun and her English husband, the Canon of Ingleheim. The village midwife Hrotrud delivers baby Joan after a dangerous, complicated labor. The cold and hateful canon is severely disappointed to have a daughter, believing that, in addition to being worthless, women are the source of sin.