After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock. To this isolated island, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby''s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up carrying a dead man and a living baby. Isabel persuades Tom to keep this "gift from God, " and we are swept into their story.