Tippany Ridge is a North Carolina coastal town famous for three things: fishing, surfing and mermaids. Mermaid sightings don't occur very often, but when they do what a ruckus Everyone gets crazy and searches out Viola Fox, the proverbial fisherman's daughter. The story begins five years after the greatest summer of Maggie Mack's life, when she lived on the Tipp with her best friend Sarah. After a toxic marriage Sarah has run off leaving Viola in need of a store keeper. She offers her services and returns to the coast. That's when things get really weird. It seems there's much more to mermaid legend than shiny scales and pretty girls. Only one thing is certain on Tippany Ridge... if you're sighted as a mermaid, well...then you're already dead.