Jack McNulty is a gentleman for hire, an Irishman temporarily serving as an officer in the British Army. He has worked as an engineer in Africa, risked his life as a bomb disposal expert in London, survived a torpedo attack from a German U-boat, and accompanied Ghana's independence as a UN observer. It is 1957, British troops have finally withdrawn, but Jack hesitates to leave, lingering in Africa like a washed-up missionary. Before he returns to Sligo and his children, he wants to come to terms with his past, because Jack McNulty is also a coward, a gun smuggler, a drinker, and a gambler who has robbed his once beautiful and witty wife Mai of her inheritance, health, and life. Driven by remorse, Jack writes his life story, the tale of a man who has committed sins.