In 1982, Gu Yuanzhou, once a deep-diving rescue worker, is reborn in the body of a frail twenty-five-year-old man in Baisha Bay. His wife died in childbirth three years ago, when their daughter, Youyou, was born. Now Youyou is only three. His father, Gu Haishan, has just died at sea while saving his second uncle, Gu Dacheng. Before his body is even cold, his uncle and aunt rush to split up the family, claiming both fishing boats, the nets, the brick house, and all the savings for themselves. All they leave Gu Yuanzhou, his mother Yao Chunmei, and Youyou is a worthless old house by the sea. While cleaning the Mazu shrine inside, Gu Yuanzhou receives a golden finger: Mazu's blessing. It lets him move through water as easily as a fish and absorb the abilities of marine life. Once he absorbs enough of the same kind of sea creature, he gains its greatest ability. Absorb a stone crab, and his hands become immensely strong; absorb a mudskipper, and his legs grow powerful, letting him walk across the mudflats without slipping; absorb a squid, and he can dart through the water like an arrow. From then on, he forages and fishes for his mother and daughter, repairs boats, and heads out to sea. He takes back the family property his father left behind, makes his ungrateful uncle and aunt regret their actions, and eventually gives his father a grand funeral, laying him to rest in the family grave.
