The Selkie are a dying people in the Fae realm. The adults selectively choose to whom they will pass down their skin: a magical seal pelt which allows the wearer to transform, but the wearer may never to return to their human state. Only so many adults have this skin, and the children and offspring vie bitterly for the chance to be one with the sea. Though to forever live as a sea animal is a perilous life and often results in death, the Selkie children cannot resist the call of the ocean. They grow up in confusion and strife as they battle with the question of why they are not chosen and others are, but they are all certain of three things: the sea does not love them, they are finite and flawed, and the sea-witch can never be trusted. Elizabeth deeply desires a skin. She waits in defeat and disappointment, never revealing her seething anger and hurt to her parents, who select the next child in line. Years pass and Elizabeth grows old. As a teenager, she was visited by an alluring girl around her age. The stranger's ancient green eyes suggested magic in her blood. Annie is magical, but not a Selkie like Elizabeth and her friends. She does not tell anyone much more than her name, and it takes years for Annie to open up to Elizabeth even as they date each other. At first, their meetings were sparse, occurring only when Annie visited Elizabeth’s Half Moon Bay in California. Annie often visited when the ceremony began to choose the next to receive a skin. When the skin passes up Elizabeth yet again, nearly crushing her, Annie decides to ask if they would live together. Elizabeth agrees. Ensconced in the shelter of San Francisco, they live a comfortable life together, with Annie still leaving for days at a time. Elizabeth, never prying, gradually collects more information about her, but never enough to truly know Annie’s backstory. Elizabeth knows enough to promise that she would never abandon Annie, but this is a lie. Elizabeth’s mother calls. Her father is offering his skin to her. Elizabeth tells Annie, but Annie warns her that if she leaves, she is dead to her. Elizabeth buses back home. She learns the truth about the Selkies, why they are both cursed and blessed, and how her mother could not bear to see her daughter die a mortal death. She accepts the skin from her mother. When Elizabeth returns to San Francisco, the apartment building she and Annie were living in disappeared. It had never existed, and what stood there instead was a dilapidated gas station. It will be nearly a decade until the two meet again, and finally, Elizabeth will see Annie’s true form. Elizabeth becomes the head of the household once her father passes, and a barrage of responsibilities fall onto her lap. The last responsibility is kept an utmost secret. The clan leaders from other Selkie families meet at Elizabeth’s house, guiding a shadowed stranger. They step back to reveal Annie, but this is not the Annie Elizabeth once loved. Her human guise melts away as she shows her true form as the sea-witch who cursed the entire Selkie bloodline. Annie had been away on so many frequent business trips because she oversaw the passing of the skins, and so she must continue with Elizabeth's children and lineage. When Elizabeth is left alone in her grief, she feels laden with guilt, but as she looks at all of her decisions, she is still not sorry.