In Fish Tails, two of Tepper's beloved characters—Abasio the Dyer and his royal wife, Xulai—are traveling through the scattered villages of the sparsely populated land of Tingawa. Accompanied by their young children, they seek to warn everyone of the dire ecological changes that will alter their lives and those of their children for generations to come.

The waters are rising, and will eventually inundate their world. Many of those born in the coming century will resemble their son and daughter—sea children who can live without land. Abasio and Xulai hope to find others interested in adopting their sea-dwelling lifestyle. Because before too long, there will be no other choice. A grand summation of a long and illustrious career, Fish Tails displays the extraordinary powers of invention of one of the great voices in contemporary science fiction. Sweeping in scope and vision, full of insights for our own time, it is a masterpiece of imagination, the capstone to a marvelous oeuvre.