When rescuers find Mila off the coast of Florida, they fully believe that they are helping her when they bring her back to human society. They do not consider her welfare beyond this point, however, and treat Mila with increasing disrespect and abuse going forward. She is forced to live in a place where she feels she does not belong. She is slowly and ironically dehumanized as she is made to learn What it Means to Be Human. What she learns is largely a disappointment, as she finds that being human means falling prey to dark emotions and lacking the Freedom to Be True to the Self.

Mila is initially brought to a hospital where she cannot go anywhere or do anything except what her doctors ask her to do. Their intentions seems altruistic: They hope to learn to communicate with dolphins and solve some of the impending climate problems that are rapidly sweeping the world. Still, their good intentions cause Mila and her friend, Shay, immense physical and emotional suffering.

Mila and Shay come from different circumstances; while Mila was raised by dolphins and is old enough to retain vague memories of an earlier life with a human family, Shay was kept in a dark, locked room her entire life.