Terenty leaves the collective farm and goes to the city to study to become an agronomist. Marina works hard and looks forward to her husband's return. When her husband returns home, he reproaches his wife for being uneducated, asks for a divorce and leaves for the city. Left with her daughter, Marina devotes herself entirely to her studies and work.

Rusalochka opens in modern day Copenhagen, Denmark. Several tourists gather around the capital's famous mermaid statue, as a tour guide explains its significance. A fish in the water below the tourists scoffs at their foolishness, and then, proceeds to tell about the doomed love of the mermaid. Upon reaching her 15th birthday, the Little Mermaid is allowed to swim up to the surface above. As soon as she does, however, the Mermaid spots a young prince caught up in a dreadful storm. She admires the man's bravery and decides to save him, declaring that, "The beautiful and the brave should not perish." After the mermaid returns to the ocean, she decides that she wants to become human.