15-year-old Lolly (short for Lollipop) Emmerson is a free-spirit, what others call "the hippie child of a hippie woman." Her favorite thing to do is sail her Boston Whaler in the Florida Keys. One night she runs into an underwater obstacle and the boat flounders. After Lolly is knocked out and separated from the boat, she realizes that she's done for and accepts her own fate. That's when the manatees arrives.