As told to a psychiatrist Mr Peabody, middle-aged Bostonian on vacation with his wife in the Caribbean, hears mysterious, wordless singing on an uninhabited rock in the bay Fishing in the vicinity, he catches a mermaid He takes her home and, though she has no spoken language, falls in love with her Of course, his wife won't believe that thing in the bathtub is anything but a large fish Predictable complications follow in rather tame fashion