The breadth of Lao's artistic and literary study of female sirens associated with the ocean realm reaches from ancient mythology to modern novelists, Roman frescoes to contemporary advertising, medieval Christianity to Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Across centuries and cultures, such mythic creatures have a similarity in appearance and description. The mythic creature is always associated with water and has combined human and aquatic features. But apart from similar visual portrayal or literary description, the mermaid, etc., is an innate precept or quality in human nature recognized no matter how it is expressed.

A Dorothy Dinnerstein in her 1963 book "The Mermaid and the Minotaur" claimed that women water sirens symbolized the "communal insight that our species' nature is internally inconsistent, that our continuities with, and our differences from, the earth's other animals are mysterious and profound..." The anomalous features of the mermaid--most conspicuously fins and breasts--symbolize inconsistent, changeable human nature; while the seductive allure tokens the mystery of Humankind's relationship to the world of nature.

The Mexican author Jose Durand sees the mythical figure as symbolizing the elusive nature of the essence of life and life's spirituality. The siren is not associated with the fluid, deep water world; nor does she live in it. The siren is water, specifically the salt, the salt of the sea, without which "it would be tasteless...Salt and the siren are life and death, and hence, dream".

Lao's broad study with choice quotes from writers of all eras and a generous amount of diverse, engaging illustrations lays out fertile thoughts of the ago-old figure of the sea siren. Besides being the author of numerous books and a professor of theater arts, Lao has composed the music for Fellini's film "City of Women". Her aesthetic sensibilities and flair bring a particular richness to her treatment of mermaids and sirens.