The following version of this short story was used to create the guide: Yanique, Tiphanie. "The Living Sea." The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners. Vintage Anchor Publishing, 2021.

Tiphanie Yanique's short story "The Living Sea," is written from the main character Sirena's first person point of view. Though the story is addressed to Sirena's unnamed child, the author does not reveal this narrative frame until the latter pages of the story. The following summary mimics the evolution and plot trajectory of the story itself.

When Sirena was nine years old her mother, father, and brother drowned. In the wake of their tragic deaths, Sirena was forced to leave her home on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, and relocate to an orphanage in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. The women who ran the home were childless and did not show the children affection. Many of the children were strange, but they learned the few rules of the home and nominally got along. The main rules of the home were to complete their assigned chores on the farm and to stay away from the rocks that encircled the beaches.

Every Sunday after Mass the children visited the seas. It was a ritual as important as church. The seas were divided into two by a strip of sand: the living beach and the death beach. All of the other children swam in the living water because it was wild and exciting. Because Sirena did not know how to swim and was afraid of the water, she always stayed on the death beach.

One day a boy named Martin arrived at the home. He was 15 years old. Sirena thought he was the same as all of the children, but soon learned that one thing was different about Martin: his mother was still alive. Sirena thought this was strange, but believed his story. She and Martin soon became friends. He even walked her to school, held her hand, and told her stories. He was the only person who had shown Sirena affection in years.

On Martin's first Sunday at the beach, he stayed with Sirena in the death waters. He taught her to float. Sirena trusted him. After four weeks of these lessons, Sirena knew how to swim on her own. On the Sunday evening after her final lesson, she snuck out of her bed and into Martin's. She and Martin talked about love and marriage. Then they had sex.

In the morning, Sirena felt like a different person. She was a woman now, and she wondered if anyone could tell. Over the course of the months following, she and Martin kept sleeping together. Then, shortly after Sirena turned 14, she began menstruating. Martin told her they would have to stop having sex so she would not get pregnant. Sirena was devastated. She felt that her life was over. She would be stuck at the home forever.

That night, Sirena and Martin walked on the beach and swam in the living waters. Martin said his mother was getting out of the hospital and he would be leaving the home. Distraught, Sirena ran away from him and climbed up onto the rocks. She screamed and cried. In the morning, she saw Martin on the shore below. When she got down he told her that she should come to San Juan to be with him and his mother.

Sirena and Martin spent the next year in San Juan. Living with Martin's mother changed their relationship. When Sirena was 15, Martin finished high school and his mother was readmitted to the hospital. She and Martin went to St. Thomas to visit Sirena's family's graves. Not long later, Martin's mother hanged herself.

Sirena and Martin got married. They had a pleasant marriage, but Martin was very sick. Sirena knew he would soon die. Ten years later they had a baby. Martin passed shortly thereafter. Instead of letting herself die from grief, Sirena chose to survive. She moved to the States, raised her child, and married another man.

She wants to give this story to her child so that she knows how love and bravery helped her overcome great sorrow.