It’s 1918, months after the end of World War 1, and a tall, serious man is in an office
doing a job interview to work as a lightkeeper at an island off the coast of Australia, called
Janus Rock. This man is a former soldier, Tom Sherbourne, and he has survivor’s guilt.
After years fighting in war, and becoming a hero, he still doesn’t understand why
out of all the soldiers, he was the one still alive. With so many bad thoughts plaguing
his mind, he wants to move to a quiet and peaceful place so that he can reflect on his
life, and the life of a lightkeeper seems perfect. Though he’s single and has no children,
which would have been helpful for the lightkeeper job, he promises he will be capable of doing
what needs to be done by himself. Although the interviewer is a bit skeptical,
Tom ends up getting the job and two days later, he arrives at Port Partageuse, the town across
the ocean to Janus Rock. Tom isn’t excited or sad, he’s just overall
neutral about his new life. The weather is cloudy and bleak in Port Partageuse. The town
is surrounded by the sea, with a very small population that is financially dependent on
the lighthouse. As he walks into town, holding his baggage,
he sees a girl wearing a white dress throwing food to the seagulls. The girl notices him
and smiles. She is quite pretty and young. Tom stares at her for some time but continues
on his way towards an inn he’s staying at. Later on that day, he goes to a meeting with
the men responsible for the lighthouse. One of the men has a daughter, Isabel Graysmark,
the same girl that Tom saw when he first arrived in town, and she is also at the meeting with
her parents. Isabel is cheeky and seems like a happy-go-lucky kind of girl.
During dinner, Tom learns some interesting news. The previous lightkeeper had to temporarily
retire because he was hallucinating, probably because of the isolation and grief of losing
his wife. As he hears this piece of information, Tom doesn’t show any emotion on his face.
He’s pretty stoic and not worried that the same is going to happen to him. After fighting
in a war, he was numb to almost anything, no matter how tragic or awful it sounds. He
also doubts anything like cabin fever is going to happen to him, it’s quite the opposite.
He’s hopeful that being alone is going to help him overcome his growing guilt.
He leaves to the lighthouse by boat. There, he will stay for six months with no contact
whatsoever with anyone, unless something important happens. The view from the lighthouse is the
great expansion of the ocean. Tom stares at it with tears in his eyes, probably remembering
his past life. There is a small cabin at the foot of the hill where the lighthouse is,
which is where Tom is going to reside for the next couple of months.
His days are pretty silent and uneventful. He works everyday at the lighthouse, and also
takes care of the cabin, fixing broken things and caring for the animals and garden. The
days go by in a silent, contemplative pace. He works and does chores, sometimes he gets
emotional and prays for forgiveness. Three months later, he’s called back to
the land because the previous lightkeeper has unalived himself, which means that his
temporary position is now permanent. He’s offered a three year contract, and accepts
it. Later, he stops by the Graysmark’s residence to have lunch, but what he really wants is
to see Isabel again. During lunch, when Isabel's mother asks what Tom’s plans before he returns
to Janus are, Isabel interrupts before he can answer to say he offered to take her on
a picnic. Tom didn’t offer anything, but he also doesn’t rebuke her claim.
During their date, Isabel tries to learn more about Tom, but he’s a quiet and serious
man who barely speaks unless it’s necessary. She tells him about herself, that she used
to have two brothers but they died in the war. Tom says he spent four years in the war
and he has no connection with his remaining relative, his father. Their relationship was
never good, and Tom didn’t feel the need to have anything to do with him. They continue
talking until Isabel asks him to take her with him to see the lighthouse, but he can’t
because the only woman that can go there is the keeper’s wife. Not to be dissuaded,
Isabel boldly tells Tom to propose to her then. Tom thinks she’s joking and calls
her crazy for wanting to marry a man like him. Moments later, he bids her goodbye and
promises to write to her. For the next couple of months, they exchange
many letters in which they declare their love for each other and their wishes to be together.
Tom opens up about himself letter after letter, and that makes Isabel fall for him even more.
Finally, after so many love letters, Tom offers Isabel to come stay with him at the lighthouse,
and promises he will always love and cherish her while being her husband. Isabel can’t
contain her happiness, and she starts planning their wedding for the next time Tom comes
back to land. Their wedding ceremony is small and lovely.
They are both very happy and excited for their future, even austere Tom. It’s time to move
back to the Lighthouse, and Isabel is enchanted. It’s a beautiful place to stay in, though
it is isolated from the rest of the world. She easily settles in her new routine with
Tom, and after some time together, she gets pregnant. The couple is ecstatic, especially
Isabel. It’s her dream to have children, so she’s looking forward to it.
Moving on, one day a heavy storm approaches and Tom needs to stay at the Lighthouse. Isabel
is left alone at the house, and at some point in the evening, she feels a bad cramp on her
stomach. She can’t communicate with Tom, but even if she could, it would have been
too late. She’s having a miscarriage. Isabel tries calling out to him, and in her desperation,
she goes out in the storm to go up the lighthouse. The wind is howling and rain is pouring, so
it’s almost impossible for Tom to hear her screams. It’s only next day, when he’s
going back to the house, that he opens the door of the lighthouse and sees Isabel lying
down on the floor, her nightdress bloodied. Tom is scared to death and takes her back
to the house. Later, they do a small funeral to their unborn baby, and Tom reassures Isabel
that it isn’t her fault. This experience changes Isabel, though. She’s sad and angry
at herself for losing the baby, and she takes it out on Tom. She even refuses to see a doctor.
Tom isn’t about to give up on his wife, though. He hires a person to fix the piano
in the house as a surprise for Isabel, and she loves it. Things between them get better
again, and it’s not long before Isabel is pregnant again. She is months in her pregnancy
when she feels the labor cramps again. She pleads to not lose another child, to no avail.
Unfortunately, she loses the baby, and this time there’s no recovery for her mental
state. Days go by, with Isabel depressed and Tom
trying to move on with their life. One day, he sees a boat in the middle of the ocean,
and they both run towards it. Inside the boat, there’s a wailing baby, and the body of
a man. The baby is a girl, and Isabel is instantly taken by her. Tom wants to call for a boat
to take the man’s body away and find out who the baby belongs to, but Isabel wants
to keep her for a while. Tom is divided in his opinions, because he has to report the
missing boat, but Isabel is finally happy with the baby. Isabel begs him not to report
anything so that they can keep the baby and pretend she delivered early. No one knew that
she had two miscarriages, she was too embarrassed to tell anyone. Tom eventually accepts, albeit
begrudgingly. He buries the man’s body and makes up a lie to report that the man arrived
at the island in bad health and died. No mention of a baby with him.
They name the little girl Lucy, and tell everyone that she’s their baby. Isabel is back to
her old self, happy and giddy, while Tom has a heavy conscience. As the months pass, Lucy
grows to be a healthy, cute baby, who instantly charms everyone she’s in contact with. They
go back to Port Partageuse to visit and introduce Lucy to her grandparents. She’s also going
to be baptized, but the day they go to the church, the vicar isn’t there. Tom starts
to wander around the church’s cemetery while they wait, and he distantly sees a woman in
black praying in front of a tomb. He’s curious as to who she’s praying to, so when she
leaves, he goes to the tomb. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat, and Tom is
shocked when he sees the names on the tomb: a father and baby daughter, called Grace Hellen,
lost to the sea on the day before Tom found Lucy’s boat.
He can’t believe in what he’s seeing and starts crying. A mother was without her daughter
because of their lie. His conscience weighs tons now, and for the rest of the day, he
is standoffish and silent. When they go back to the lighthouse, he decides to send a letter
to the baby’s mother, Hannah, saying that her daughter is being taken care of and is
well. He finishes the letter asking her to pray for him.
When Hannah receives the letter, she goes to the police and asks them to look for her
daughter. Then, her father, a wealthy man, doubles the prize for anyone who finds out
where baby Grace is. Now she knows that not only her baby is alive but someone has her,
she is determined to discover where she is. Four years later, Lucy is already a big girl.
She loves her parents, and her parents love her. They are a beautiful family. A celebration
of the fortieth birthday of the lighthouse arrives, and there Tom sees Hannah again.
Once more, he’s reminded of what he has done. Unbeknown to them, Isabel and Hannah
are introduced to each other. At one point, Hannah abruptly leaves, and her sister, Gwen,
explains her behavior to Isabel and Tom. She tells them that Hannah lost her husband and
daughter in the sea, and Isabel is shocked. She gives Lucy to Tom and runs away feeling
bad. Next day, Tom tries to reason with her that they need to tell the truth about Lucy,
but Isabel thinks it’s not going to be good for Lucy to know something like that.
Still, Tom’s conscience makes him send a little toy that came with Lucy to Hannah.
The family goes back to the lighthouse, with the secret weighting more than ever. Meanwhile,
Hannah gives the toy to the investigator and they take pictures of it to put around town.
One man who knows Lucy recognizes the toy and tells the police. A week later, the police
go to the lighthouse to speak to Tom and Isabel. Tom instructs Isabel to tell them that it
was his idea and he forced her to do it. Isabel is distraught and afraid she’s going to
lose Lucy. The police interrogate them, and Tom shows them where Hannah’s husband’s
body is buried. Later, Tom is detained and they go back to Port Partageuse. The police
take Lucy forcibly from Isabel so she can be returned to Hannah, and Lucy screams and
cries. When Tom is interrogated, the police ask if
he killed Lucy’s biological father, to which he stoically replies he didn’t. He suggests
that if they don’t believe him, to ask Isabel. They want to charge him for murder. Isabel
is in no condition to answer any questions, she is desperate that they took her daughter
away from her and that Tom betrayed her by sending things to Hannah. She tells her mother
that she will never forgive him, and when he sends her a letter, she refuses to open
it. Meanwhile, Lucy wants to go back home to her
parents, and Hannah tries to explain that she is actually her daughter, Grace. The little
girl refuses to accept it and tries to escape Hannah. One day, Isabel enters a store and
sees Lucy. The girl instantly runs and hugs her while Hannah watches. Lucy doesn’t want
to go back with Hannah, so Hannah rips Lucy away from Isabel.
Later that day, Hannah goes to prison to ask Tom questions. She asks why he did what he
said he did. Tom replies that he’s sorry, and pleads for her to leave Isabel alone because
she was forced by him. Hannah doesn’t say anything back and leaves.
In the following scene, Hannah is serving dinner and she calls Lucy, but she doesn’t
come. She searches for her, thinking she’s hiding, but when she can’t find her, she
realizes that the girl has run away. The police go to Isabel's parents’ house to see if
Lucy is with her, but she isn’t. A search party is sent to look for her and they find
her sleeping by the shore. She tried to go back home to Janus island. Before they found
her, Hannah had promised that she would do what was right for Lucy when she was found
and put her in first place. She realized that Lucy needed her parents, not her. With her
mind made, she goes to Isabel's house the next day and tells her that she’s willing
to give up on Lucy if Isabel testifies against her husband. Isabel is conflicted. She loved
Lucy so much that she would be able to sacrifice anything, but she also loved Tom, even if
she felt angry at him for what he had done. Before she makes a decision, she goes back
to her room and grabs the letter Tom sent her. There he asks for her forgiveness, and
tells her that he did what he did because he couldn’t continue on with the weight
of more guilt on his shoulders. He thanks her for the time they spent together, and
that he’s grateful she loved him, a man with so many faults. He’s ready to face
his sentence, he sees it as a way to atone for his sins of the war and the fact that
out of so many other men who died, he was chosen to stay alive. Isabel cries as she
reads her husband's last letter, and decides she can’t let him go. At this time, Tom
is already being transported to the capital so that he can be judged for murder. Isabel
runs after him, but when Tom sees her, he asks the captain of the boat to cast it off
before she gets to him. Isabel manages to get to him and hugs him. She starts mumbling
that it’s not true and Tom tries to stop her from confessing.
Still, Isabel doesn’t think it’s right for Tom to take the fall for her mistakes,
and tells the police it was all her idea and that she told him to bury Lucy’s father
and keep her with them as their daughter. The police hear and tell Hannah later. She’s
shocked that it was Isabel’s idea all along, and when she asks what is going to happen
to the couple, the police say that they will go to jail. Hannah then decides that she’ll
testify in their favor, because she wants to give Lucy her parents back and she is willing
to forgive them. When Isabel and Tom go to jail, Lucy stays
with Hannah and they build a good relationship, like mother and daughter. Lucy is still young
so it won’t be a problem for her to get used to her new life.
More than twenty years later, Isabel and Tom are older and Isabel is on her deathbed. They
stay in a farmhouse, away from everything and everyone. They never had any more children,
and Lucy stayed with Hannah after they left jail. They lost contact, and the couple moved
on with their life, though Isabel never stopped talking and thinking about Lucy.
One day, a car stops by their property. Tom greets the person, a blonde, smiling woman
who asks if she’s at Tom and Isabel's property. When Tom says yes, she introduces herself
as Lucy Grace Ruthford, their Lucy. She’s now an adult, and has recently become a mother.
Her baby’s name is Christopher. Lucy thanks Tom for saving and taking care of her when
she was a baby, and that she couldn’t come sooner to visit. It’s then that we find
out that Isabel passed away, but she left a letter for Lucy, as if she knew one day
she would return. In the letter, Isabel tells Lucy that she
promised she would stay away from her, and she kept her promise. She thanks Lucy for
allowing them to be part of her life, however briefly it was, and that the thought that
she was well taken care of and happy comforted her. At the end of the letter, Lucy asks if
she and her son could come back to visit him. When she leaves, she gives Tom a hug.
In the last scene, we see Tom watching the sunset with a peaceful expression. He also
outlived his wife, but now he doesn’t feel guilty about it.