They call her Mila, from the Spanish word for "miracle." Lost after a plane crash when she was small, Mila has been cared forever since by dolphins. When she is eventually spotted on an unpopulated island off Cuba, she is an adolescent and seems hardly human to her rescuers.
Mila is taken to a child study center in Boston. Eager to please, she makes rapid progress in language and social skills. With her recorder, Mila finds she can even make music like the dolphin songs she yearningly remembers. But the more Mila discovers about what it means to be human — the locked doors, the rules, the betrayals — the more she longs for her watery home and gentle dolphin family.