Ken­ny Fries embarks on a jour­ney of pro­found self-dis­cov­ery as a dis­abled for­eign­er in Japan, a soci­ety his­tor­i­cal­ly hos­tile to dif­fer­ence. As he vis­its gar­dens, expe­ri­ences Noh and butoh, and meets artists and schol­ars, he also dis­cov­ers dis­abled gods, one-eyed samu­rai, blind chant­i­ng priests, and A‑bomb sur­vivors. When he is diag­nosed as HIV pos­i­tive, all his assump­tions about Japan, the body, and mor­tal­i­ty are shak­en, and he must find a way to reen­ter life on new terms.