The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Gowar, Imogen Hermes. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock. Harper Collins, 2018.

Gowar divides the novel into three volumes with an epilogue at the end. Each volume corresponds to a major phase in the lives of the two main characters, the famous courtesan Angelica Neal and the merchant who receive the mermaid, Jonah Hancock. The novel begins as Mr. Hancock waits for his ship to return, but when the Captain Tysoe Jones finally returns he explains he sold Hancock’s ship in exchange for a small, dead mermaid which looks more monstrous than magical. Mr. Hancock is horrified and angry at first, unable to see the value of the mermaid. Jones convinces him to exhibit it and charge money for people to view it.

Meanwhile, Angelica Neal returns to London penniless after the gentleman she settled down with died and his debts came due. At 27, she aims to better her position and find a new man to take care of her, but her former madame Mrs. Chappell tries to manipulate her into rejoining her house of ill repute. When Mrs. Chappell learns of the mermaid, she hires it from Mr. Hancock for a large sum to hold a party. She convinces Angelica to accompany Mr. Hancock to the party. Mrs. Chappell dresses her young prostitutes like mermaids and an orgy erupts, scandalizing Mr. Hancock and causing him to write the madame the next day and ask for his mermaid to be returned. Angelica left an impression on him, however, and he struggles to forget her and worries he has jilted her.

After Mr. Hancock deserts her at the party, Angelica takes up with a young Navy gentleman named George Rockingham. Rockingham claims he will support Angelica and her friend and assistant Mrs. Frost, but Angelica’s friends tell her not to trust him. Rockingham is too young to have full control over his inheritance and instead lives off an allowance from his uncle. When the uncle discovers Rockingham is living with a prostitute and has debts all over the city, he writes his nephew to visit him and forces Rockingham to give Angelica up. In the meantime, Angelica and her friend Bel Fortescue have tried to go shopping using Rockingham’s credit and discovered how large his debts are across the city. Saddled with the debts, Angelica believes she is ruined and begins pawning her jewelry and other fine possessions. Mr. Hancock visits her, and offers to pay her debts and marry her.

Angelica settles into her more modest life as Mr. Hancock’s wife. Mrs. Frost comes to visit and reveals she has become a madame with start-up money she gained from swindling Angelica. Mr. Hancock sells the mermaid to an unidentified rich collector through his agents for 20,000 pounds, enough money at the time to make him comfortably wealthy. He buys a large estate for Angelica, which has a summer house with a grotto made from seashells and a pool. He considers this a sign as he has hired a new ship and sent Captain Jones into the North Sea looking for a second mermaid. Captain Jones returns with a new mermaid, but the creature has made everyone on his ship melancholy and he says he is not sure he should give it to Mr. Hancock. Mr. Hancock keeps the new mermaid in a vat of water at the docks, until its sadness affects everyone nearby and he is told he has to move her. Finally, he moves the mermaid to the grotto at his house, where he becomes entranced with her, neglecting Angelica and the rest of his family. Angelica is distraught from a miscarriage. When Angelica learns Mr. Hancock’s secret she blames the mermaid for the family’s woes and vows to exhibit her. She plans a party. Mr. Hancock’s niece, Sukie, who lives with them, becomes curious and breaks into the mermaid’s chamber. When Sukie is beset with sorrow, Angelica changes her mind about exhibiting the mermaid. Instead, at the end of the novel, she and Mr. Hancock dump the mermaid and its water into the pool in the grotto so that it can flow back into the ocean. The party is a success without the mermaid.