When Father Ciarán O'Sullivan is viciously attacked in his home and left for dead, he realizes that his life has been a waste. As a priest in the African village of Kishagi, on the slopes of Mount Kenya, he has tried to be both divine and human, and failed at both.

As he finds his way back from the limbo lands between living and dying, he accepts he has much to learn about himself, and more to learn from and about the people he has presumed to serve.

This is a journey of love, hatred, jealousy, and forgiveness in a place at the center of the whirlpool of differing cultures and beliefs.

The Man With No Skin vividly illustrates the clash between traditional and modern worlds and the cultural divide between blacks and whites in Africa. The human impact of the spread of AIDS and a priest’s struggle with his own humanity are also important themes.