a woman called jia jia  one day finds her husband dead. next to his dead body, she finds a drawing of a fish-man (a man with the head of a fish). she gets obsessed with it and starts trying to figure out the meaning behind it. the symbolism of water is very important in this book, through the drawing of the fish-man, jia jia's visions of 'the water world', and her struggles with painting waves despite actually being a painter. 
jia jia also gets to discover some wonders of life that she didn't know of before. she learns a lot about her own emotions, her relationships with other people, her mother and husband. she learns how to feel on a deeper level, and that makes her feel as if she's started a brand new life. 
i loved reading about jia jia exploring her identity, while getting to discover elements of magic realism aka the water world. many things in this book were sort of mysterious, maybe vague, but i liked that a lot. i'm a huge fan of the author's writing style, it made the book even more hypnotic. water themed books have this effect on me in general, but only if the style is fitting. perfect ♡