Not long after the war, a girl is born on the small island Vakkerøya – Pretty Island. Nobody has ever seen a child like this before, and everybody wonders how such a thing could happen. Gunhild, the girl herself, also starts wondering as she grows older and realises she is different from everyone else. She struggles with questions that are difficult to find an answer to – and the quest for answers will eventually lead her on a journey far away from Vakkerøya. But other people than Gunhild also have wishes and dreams about what kind of future such an unusual child should expect.

This is the story of a small island community and the people living there; of belonging and yearning to be elsewhere. We meet Konrad, who has great plans for the development of the island, Samuel the whale-hunter, Martin the tractor-driver, the Norwegian pony Franken, Cæsar the dog and a gang of sly sheep. And not least does the description of the relationship between Gunhild and Conrad turn this novel into a beautiful love-story.