While looking for food for her kids, Ophelia's attention is drawn to a shiny object, levitating freely in front of her. Mermaids love shinies, so she approaches it and attempts to touch it. At the exact moment her fingers hit the surface of the object, something invisible closes around her and drags her up to the surface. Everything happens too fast for her to understand, but she ends up on a shipdeck, tangled in a fishnet. Scary humans look down at her as she tries to flop around to no avail. She ends up being kept in the captains bathroom in a bathub.

The captain discovers that her tears have magical healing powers, which is a reason to keep her alive and not sell her off. (Tw: abuse) He develops a technique where he hurts or threathens her until she cries so he can harvest the tears. At first he doesn't look at her as more than a resource making him money, but as time passes, he starts to grow softer around her and see her in a more human light.