"For as long as she can remember, Alea has felt drawn to the sea. But she is also afraid of it because coming into contact with water could be fatal to her -- or at least that's what Alea's mother told her foster mother before she disappeared. One day, Alea joins the Alpha Cru kids, who live on a sailboat and spend their time sailing the sea. During the first big storm, Alea is swept overboard. Instead of fear, she is filled with a profound calm, and feels totally safe in the water. She can swim like a fish...and she can also breathe like one. The ugly lumps behind her ears, which she has always hidden under her hair, have developed into gills, and those between her fingers are now webs. The secret she never knew she had is that she can turn into a mermaid . . . After that, nothing is the same again"--