Mary is a pretty, 11-year-old girl with blond hair and green eyes. She has been deaf since birth and lives with her family on the island of Martha’s Vineyard at the beginning of the 19th century. Her father is deaf, and her mother and brother are hearing. Mary is burdened with guilt over the death of her brother, George. The siblings were playing in the road when a carriage approached. Because Mary couldn’t hear the vehicle, her brother pushed her out of the way and was run over. Mary has since felt responsible for this accident, and it isn’t until the end of the novel that she is ready to move past her grief.

The inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard do not look down upon people who are deaf. Because of the prevalence of deafness in the community, everyone has devised a way to communicate using a local form of sign language. Mary doesn’t see her condition as disabling because she is surrounded by people who view deafness as normal but different. Her opinion changes radically when she is abducted to Boston by the young scientist Andrew, who considers deafness a disease and plans to study her. Mary’s time in the outside world is both traumatic and frustrating because she cannot communicate with anyone else.