Several years earlier, Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble) and the team at the Clearwater Marine Hospital in Florida, headed by Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick, Jr.), rescued Winter the dolphin. They enlisted the help of Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Morgan Freeman), who developed a unique prosthetic tail for the injured dolphin, thereby saving her life.

When Winter’s surrogate mother, an elderly dolphin named Panama, passes away, Winter is left without a pool mate. Not only is Winter lonely without her friend, but according to USDA regulations, dolphins, who are very social, can't be housed alone. Clearwater needed to find Winter another friend or lose her to another aquarium. When another baby dolphin needs rescuing, they may have just found the solution to their problem.