In the summer of 1970, hunters drive a pod of orcas into Penn Cove and net six calves for sale to marine parks, killing five adult whales in the process. The film follows what happened to those six young orcas after they were shipped around the world into performance tanks, and finds that three decades later only one is still alive: a whale renamed Lolita, working as the star attraction at Miami Seaquarium. Interviews with marine mammal scientists and former trainers lay out what is known about orca social bonds and lifespan in the wild, then set that against the conditions of Lolita's tank, which the film argues is too small by any standard used elsewhere in the industry. Archival footage from the capture and early years in captivity sits alongside present-day footage of her performances, tracking the physical and behavioral changes between them. The film builds its case against the marine park industry through Lolita's specific history rather than general argument, using one whale's three decades in captivity as the evidence.