Ellen is out fishing on her boat when she discovers an injured mermaid tangled in the mangroves. When she approaches the mermaid to free her from the roots, she realizes that the mermaid's face is her own, several decades younger. Ellen's great-grandmother and grandmother were both mermaids who chose to tear their tail in two for legs instead, so she feels a pull to mermaids, her ancestors. She ties the mermaid up and puts her in the boat to help take care of her injuries and figure out more about her. She takes her home and keeps her in the bathroom after she stitches up her wounds, hoping she will heal. The next day, Ellen's ex-lover from a decade ago, a merchant named Stella, pulls up to Ellen's ship in her own boat. Stella tells Ellen that the mermaids are coming back to spawn this year, and that mermaid tails are worth a hundred thousand yin at market. Their tail can be severed off without killing the mermaid, but Ellen thinks it is cruel and tells Stella she is uninterested. After thinking it over she changes her mind and meets Stella at the market place the next evening. Stella arranges for them to meet the next morning so that Ellen can help guide her through the mangroves which she knows the best of anyone in the region. After several days of tracking down mermaids, the crew still has found none and Stella becomes frustrated with Ellen, but does not take her anger out on her yet. She offers to take Ellen back to the boat where she lives, and when they get there, Stella invites herself into the bedroom onboard. The women begin getting more intimate, Stella choking Ellen, who submissively undresses. Stella takes out her knife and examines scars, shaped like scales, she carved into Ellen years ago. Ellen says she misses them and asks for six more, which Stella happily does. Stella goes to the bathroom to get something to clean Ellen's bloody leg with, and discovers the mermaid Ellen has been hiding. She becomes irate and manhandles the mermaid, throwing her into the hold where Ellen realizes Stella is keeping mermaids in huge tanks to breed. The mermaid, Kiru, is in pain and afraid from the harsh way Stella has treated her and fears her fate. She tells Ellen to kill her. Ellen slits her throat and pierces her gallbladder, releasing the bile so Kiru's tail will be inedible. Stella throws the mermaid off the ship and Ellen is left to retrieve the body from the river and give Kiru a dignified burial. Ellen mourns her death, and the loss of her own heritage which she can never recover, not even with the scales etched into her thighs in blood and scars.