- The stage directions inform us that it's a dark and stormy night in June 1456.
- Charles, who is now King Charles VII, is reading in bed. He's 51.
- Ladvenu, 25 years older than last we saw him, enters the bedroom unannounced.
- Startled, the King jumps out of bed.
- Ladvenu tells the King that Joan's good name has been cleared. Apparently he's been obsessed with setting the record straight ever since her execution.
- He goes on to say that, unlike Joan's original trial, this recent hearing was full of lies and corruption. However, strangely enough, this time the truth was actually heard.
- Charles says he doesn't care how Joan's name got cleared, as long people can't criticize him for being crowned by a heretical sorceress.
- Ladvenu says that he should be thinking of Joan now not himself.
- There's no use in thinking about her, says the King. She was bigger than all of us.
- He tells Ladvenu that, if Joan were resurrected today, people would just burn her all over again.
- The priest doesn't want to hear this. He leaves, saying that he's never hanging out in palaces with kings again.
- There's a flash of lightning.
- Charles hears Joan's voice.
- She appears.
- He asks if she's a ghost.
- She's says, nah, you're just dreaming.
- They settle down for a friendly chat.
- The King asks her if it hurt to be burnt.
- Joan replies that she doesn't really remember.
- Guess what, says Charles, I like battles now. They call me Charles the Victorious.
- That's swell, Joan tells him. I must've really helped you after all.
- The King informs her that the people that convicted her have been declared to be corrupt.
- Joan thinks that her accusers were honest, even if they were foolish. Anyway what good is it? She's still burnt.
- Cauchon pops up and joins the dream.
- Joan asks him how he's doing.
- Pretty badly, the Bishop tells her. They've dug up my dead body, excommunicated it, and thrown it in the sewer.
- He still argues that he did only what was good, right, and proper.
- Charles tells them both that it's people like them, with their high minded ideas of goodness, who cause all the problems. They should be more like him: just a humble little King of France.
- Awesome, says Joan. You're the King of France? I guess it all worked out the way I wanted.
- Dunois appears.
- He tells Joan that he kept his word and got rid of all the English.
- She asks him if he's dead, too.
- Nope, he says. I'm still alive and sleeping in my own bed right now. It's just my spirit that's hanging out with y'all right now.
- Joan wants to know if he defeated the English her way – no ransoms, just kill or be killed, for the glory of God.
- Yep, he tells her. Your way worked the best.
- Dunois informs her that he wrote a lovely little letter to help get her name cleared.
- He feels kind of bad about not trying to save her before, but there wasn't a lot he could do with her being in the hands of the Church.
- Sure, blame everything on the Church, whines Cauchon.
- A Soldier joins them.
- For some strange reason he's singing a random little song.
- He tells them that he's a saint from Hell.
- It turns out that he's the guy that gave Joan two sticks to use as a cross while she was being burnt. It was the one good thing he ever did in his life.
- For this act of kindness he gets one day a year where he gets to go free from Hell.
- He says that hell isn't anywhere near as bad as fighting in the French wars. He adds that hell is full of emperors and popes.
- A Newcomer arrives.
- They find out that he used to be the Chaplain de Stogumber. Now he's just a simple preacher at a simple church.
- He still feels guilty about being mean to Joan. He didn't understand what real cruelty was until he saw her burning.
- Cauchon asks him why knowing the story of Christ's suffering wasn't enough for him to understand.
- De Stogumber tells him it's different when it's right in front of you.
- The Bishop wonders if somebody has to die like Jesus in every generation just to remind people not to be cruel.
- Joan takes heart in what De Stogumber is saying. She comments that at least her death saved all the people toward whom the former chaplain would've been mean.
- The Executioner appears.
- He tells them that, though he destroyed Joan's body, her spirit lives on.
- Warwick pops up. (Jeez, this dream is getting crowded.)
- He congratulates Joan on having her name cleared and apologizes for his part in it.
- No hard feelings, he says. It was just politics.
- Joan tells him that she's not mad about it.
- A Gentleman enters. He's dressed in the fashion of the 1920's.
- They all laugh at his more "modern" clothes.
- He doesn't have time for their nonsense. The Church has sent him from the future to tell them that Joan has been made a saint.
- Joan is happy.
- De Stogumber asks if they can put a statue of her in front of Winchester Cathedral back in England.
- Apparently, they can, because a vision of the statue appears.
- The Gentleman tells them that there are so many statues of Joan in France now that they're getting in the way of traffic.
- Everybody gets on their knees and tells Joan how great she is.
- She asks them if she ought to rise from the dead and rejoin the living.
- This freaks everybody out.
- They all make excuses about why her resurrection would be a bad idea and exit.
- In the end, she's left alone with the Soldier.
- He tells her that all these highfalutin' people aren't worth her time anyway. In the end, all that matters, is what you think is right.
- The clock tolls and the Soldier goes back to Hell.
- Joan is left alone in a bright white light.
- She asks God when the world will be ready for His saints.