This is the story of a man who belonged to one of the most important families of the West Highlands - the MacDdonalds of Morar - and who played a part in the '45 (blessing the prince's standard at Glenfinnan) and who, as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the Highlands, played a crucial role in the development of the Church, both in Scotland and the New World. The book explores the connections and tensions between the three worlds of Highlander, bishop and Jacobite. As the first Scottish trained Roman Catholic priest and the first Highland bishop since the Reformation, Hugh MacDonald was forced to run his diocese from a number of different places and using a number of different aliases. For 40 years he led his congregation through events that were to change the Highlands for ever - the first emigration to the New World, the first Clearances, the appalling aftermath of the Jacobite rebellions - and which were played out against a background of the seismic shifts that were taking place in Highland society.
Hugh MacDonald's life began and ended amidst devastating famines, and took him from the remotest Hebrides to the Jacobite court in Paris and brought him into contact with cardinals and fellow bishops, chiefs and bards, saints and traitors.