A Metzora is a person who has tzaraat. This person is impure and has to leave the camp (or city) and wait there until the tzaraat goes away. When the kohen visits him outside of the camp and see that he no longer has tzaraat, he does a special procedure with two birds, spring water, a cedar stick, a strip of red wool, and a bundle of the herb hyssop. Then the person washes his clothing, shaves his hair and immerses in the mikvah. He is now purified and may return to the camp.
Houses can also be afflicted with tzaraat, and again it is the kohen's job to identify it. If he detects tzaraat in the walls of the house, he locks up the house and it is left alone for seven days. If the tzaraat then disappears, the house is fine, but if nothing happens, or if the tzaraat has spread, the afflicted stones are removed and replaced, the walls are replastered, and the house is locked up for another seven days. If after the second week the kohen sees that the tzaraat has spread, he declares the the house tameh and it is burned or destroyed.
Garments can also be afflicted with tzaraat. The treatment of an afflicted garment is similar to that of a house.
The end of the parshah discusses three other types of impurity, and how someone can be purified from each one.
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