The central character of the book, Lazarus Kane, is the only survivor of a shipwreck, who, through a lightning-strike, becomes the possessor of healing powers & preternatural strength. In the land in which he arrives, there is a political struggle between two rival factions: the establishment politics of an unquestioning theistic faith & the revolutionary politics of an equally dogmatic atheistic materialism. True to his own agnostic uncertainty, Lazarus refuses overtures from both factions, who want to exploit his healing powers, each for their own particular ends. The book describes how he pays the ultimate price for refusing to sacrifice his personal integrity to the easy allure of political factions & collective identity.