Lira kan feitlik enige gebreekte ding mooi of bruikbaar maak, maar met liefdesverhoudings vaar sy minder goed. Veral waar daar kinders betrokke is. Sy het geen benul hoe om ʼn ma te wees nie. Tog het sy geglo sy sal iets kan uitwerk wat waarde toevoeg tot Frank en Debbie se lewe.

Dit is egter die een upcycling-projek waarin sy jammerlik misluk het.

Sy beland op Vywerbaai waar sy ʼn winkeltjie vir haar upcycle-produkte wil oopmaak. Die finansiële risiko’s wat sy neem is enorm en teenspoed bly nie uit nie, maar sy bly vasberade – upcycle gaan sy haar lewe upcycle.

Lira wen die kosbare vriendskap van drie eiesoortige vroue en die respek van ʼn vierde, maar verloor haar hart aan die verkeerdste man denkbaar – een met ʼn sterwende vrou en ʼn kind wat Lira haat.

Die legende van die vywervrou van Vywerbaai word die tema van Lira se winkel, maar hou ook ʼn waarskuwing in: Ter wille van sy kinders, sal ʼn man sy taaibosspies deur ʼn vywervrou se hart druk en haar visstert gaarmaak sodat hulle kan eet.

Maar soos haar vriendin Corali sê: “Ons vywervroue laat ons nie fokken opvreet nie. Deur geen man, vrou of kind nie.”

Lira can turn nearly any broken thing into something pretty or useful, but relationships based on love are beyond her. Especially when children are involved. She has no inkling about being a mother. Yet, she believed she would be able to work something out that would be of value to Frank and Debbie’s lives.

This is, however, the one upcycling project that ends in total disaster.

She ends up in Vywer Bay where she wants to open a little shop to sell her upcycled products. The financial risks she takes are enormous and there’s no way of keeping adversity at bay. But she remains determined – she will upcycle her life, no matter what.

Lira wins the precious friendship of three unique women and the respect of a fourth, but she loses her heart to the most unsuitable man imaginable – one nursing a dying wife and a child that despises Lira.

The legend of the mermaid of Vywer Bay becomes the theme of Lira’s shop, but also holds a warning: For the sake of his children, a man will pierce a mermaid’s heart with a taaibos spear and will cook her tail so that his family can eat.

But as her friend Corali says: “Us mermaids won’t be fucking devoured. Not by any man, woman or child.”