John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of ScotlandIvar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.

Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. Clearchronicles the surprising bond that develops between these two menpack[ing] a great deal of power into a compact tale (The Wall Street Journal) about connection, home, and hopein which John begins to learn Ivars language, and Ivar sees himself reflected through the eyes of another person for the first time in decades.

Unfolding during the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearancesa period of the 19th century which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictionsthis singular novel explores what binds us together in the face of insurmountable difference, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can endure despite all odds.