<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed . Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise . (June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed . Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise . (June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> In 1964, 8 - year - old Allen Bauer (David Kreps) is vacationing with his family near Cape Cod . While taking a sight - seeing tour on a small boat, he sees something below the ocean surface that fascinates him . Allen jumps into the water, even though he cannot swim . He grasps the hands of a girl (Shayla Mackarvich) who is inexplicably under the water with him and an instant connection forms between the two . Allen can now breathe under water as he is in the hands of a mermaid . However, Allen is pulled to the surface by the deck hands and the two are separated, though apparently no one else sees the girl . Allen comes to believe the encounter was a near - death hallucination, but his bond with the mermaid proves so strong that his subsequent relationships with women fail as he subconsciously seeks the connection he felt with the mermaid . </P> <P> 20 years later, Allen (Tom Hanks) is now co-owner of a wholesale fruit and vegetable business in New York City with his womanizing brother Freddie (John Candy). Depressed after his latest breakup, Allen returns to Cape Cod, where he encounters eccentric scientist Dr. Walter Kornbluth (Eugene Levy). After Allen is left alone when his motorboat breaks down, he falls into the sea, and is knocked out when the boat hits his head . He wakes up with a headache on a beach, where he encounters a beautiful naked woman with long blonde hair and the inability to talk (Daryl Hannah) who, unknown to him, is the mermaid he met as a boy . After kissing him, she dives into the sea and leaves Allen to return home . Kornbluth, while diving in order to seek proof of strange sea creatures, also encounters the mermaid in her sea form, causing him to become obsessed with finding her again . </P>

Who played the little girl mermaid in splash