Tara Ortley is the mayor of a sunken Florida town and the mother of Tommy.

Just as Tara is trying to save the people in her town from the rising tides due presumably to climate change, she receives updates about her dying child Tommy--who in his attempts to become a competitive engineer, permanently altered his brain due to drugs and machines. The doctor updates Tara that there is a chance for Tommy to survive through an experimental procedure. The procedure, however, costs the same amount that the company reconstructing the sunken island would be forced to pay. Tara then has to make a decision of who she would like to save.