Dolphins are intelligent, highly intelligent. The sounds that they make are not a language. They are the equivalent of facial expressions and hand gestures. Wasting his whole life trying to decipher the dolphin's language, Oz's grandpa discovers that the dolphins, as a race, have a collective objective. They want to reach out to space and communicate with what's out there. To reach space, a human can build a rocket and propel himself out into the interstellar medium. A dolphin doesn't have hands and can't build things. They don't even consider space exploration from a human perspective. Dolphins reach for the great unknown from their point of view, using their assets and abilities. When his grandpa dies, Oz is swept up in the dolphin's designs. Helping them as a tribute to his grandpa, Oz puts his career, his budding romance, his entire life on hold. Nothing goes like he imagines and his whole world changes.