Caspian is looking for his mother. Snatched from the beach as a child and raised as a half-breed Mer-Prince in the long-lost city of Atlantis, his turn to rule is coming fast. When Caspian learns that the Mer in Oceania have found a method to visit land--a practice forbidden in Atlantis--and later return to the sea. Unfortunately, the "magic" method involves poison so potent that only half-breeds with undamaged lungs can survive it. When his Sea King father forces Caspian's engagement to a mermaid he can't stand, Caspian decides it's time to go in search of his human roots, and the woman who gave him life.

Elise has nothing left to lose, except the house she grew up in and a beat-up classic car her father had intended to restore. While her friends leave home for college and abroad, she's stuck waitressing at The Sea Turtle, begging for enough hours to pay her power bill, and using her lunch breaks to place flowers on her parents' graves. Not only is she not looking for love--she's not even looking for friendship. Loss is something she knows too much of, and she can't survive any more. But when she finds a mysterious stranger wandering the cemetery, she takes pity on the pathetic soul and brings him to her work where she can feed him a solid meal.

The innocent meeting turns into an unbreakable bond, and sets off a chain of events that leaves them both questioning their place in the world--be it land or sea--and discovering just how essential love and family can be.