She is the adopted daughter of a rich Earth businessman, and until recently she was living a quite luxurious life as a near-graduate medical student in Philadelphia, Earth. Classical nerd type, best of her course, excellent in emergency medicine, but totally shy and absolutely terrible with human relationships. She was testing new diagnostic techniques so she has a micro chemical lab implanted in her tongue and scent sensors in the nose.

Unfortunately her stepfather was not so cristalline as she thought: unbeknownst to her, he was a pirate. And he was actually her biological father. Obviously he didn't use the Nymei surname, but a legendary nom de guerre that is known and feared still today. After a successful career, he retired on Earth, went to the orphanage where he had left baby Nerys some years before, and brought her to home, telling her that she had been adopted. He was very careful to cover his tracks, so it is very unlikely that someone could link Nerys or the ship to the old pirate.

Now he disappeared, with all the money, and it is unclear if he still alive, maybe on the run, or if someone from the past recognized it and killed him. Nerys just knows that last week she returned home and there was nothing left. Her home, her money, even the funds for her tuition, everything had been confiscated. Her only memory of him now is an old pearl necklace. There is more than meets the eye in that necklace, but she don't have a clue.

The only asset left... probably because it was outside Earth's jurisdiction... was an old Sidewinder named Black Pearl, kept in cold storage in the Inara system. So Nerys bought a ticket to Inara to retrieve it, hoping to sell the ship and repay the debts, only to discover that it is worth only a minimal fraction of the sum. So she decided to rename it Fairytale, to become a real Commander and work hard to return to her old life.