Norway 1812. Arne Bjørneboe, known as the Dumb, a young sailor who came back from the war deaf and with a disfigured face, becomes the first keeper of the newly built lighthouse on the rock opposite Horendal. The rock is inhospitable, and here Arne feels immediately at home; he is no longer an outcast and a drunkard, but a man with a purpose. The island is a universe in its own right, where time seems to flow according to its own parameters and life goes on without affecting it, like the ships that cross the Canal brushing the island, but they never land there. Arne will marry Gunhild, silent and shy like him, and their descendants will become one with the lighthouse; even those who decide to leave will retain a hidden and firm link with this rock and its lighthouse.
The Island of the Dumb is a great family saga: the readers will follow the Bjørneboes – eccentrics, patriots, smugglers – from the beginning of the XIX century to the late Seventies of the XX century.