A fictional “editor” informs readers that the story that follows “was recorded in Hindi on a series of tapes by a nineteen-year-old boy in the Indian city of Khaufpur” and that “nothing has been changed” other than its translation into English.

Animal says he doesn’t remember a time when he was human, though he’s told he once “walked on two feet just like a human being” (1). He says he was “born a few days before that night” (1), a reference to the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster, in which thousands of people were killed or injured as a result of a methyl isocyanate gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. Ma Franci, who we will later find out was a French nun at the orphanage where Animal grew up, told him stories of his walking upright, but Animal finds no comfort in these stories, asking, “Is it kind to remind a blind man that he could once see?” (1).

Animal avoids mirrors and is haunted by the sight of his shadow, feeling “raw disgust” (2). He is tormented with jealousy and “rage against all things that go or even stand on two legs” (2)—Ma Franci, waiters, dancers, herons, and even ladders. He states that “[t]he world of humans is meant to be viewed from eye level” (2) and that he is always eye level with “someone’s crotch” (2).

At the end of the tape, he asserts that he isn’t “clever” and that he’s going to tell his story in his own way.

Animal remembers how he’d told “Jarnalis”—the journalist who came from “Ostrali,” or Australia—that it makes no difference if his story is told, as he is “a small person not even human” (3). He is cynical about Jarnalis’s claim that “the stories of small people in this world can achieve big things” (3). He reflects how journalists “come to suck our stories from us” (5), and how when tragedy occurs they are “drawn by the smell of blood” (5).

Jarnalis had been brought to him by Chunaram, an opportunist of sorts who provides services for foreigners. Animal amuses himself by insulting Jarnalis in Hindi and pretending to tell his story while actually reciting vulgar song lyrics. His antics anger Chunaram, who reminds him they are being paid. To encourage Animal, Jarnalis reminds him that “thousands of people are looking through his eyes” (7). Animal says none of those eyes “slept even one night in a place like this” (7). Animal agrees to tell his story on the condition that the book “must be his words only” (9). He accuses Jarnalis of listening with “lofty pity” (9) and claims that “[f]or his sort we are not really people” (9). Animal also insists Jarnalis gives him his shorts, which he has admired for its many pockets. After two days, Chunaram returns with a tape machine and the shorts.

Much time passes before Animal speaks into the tapes. Remembering the journalist’s comments about eyes, Animal begins “talking to the eyes that are reading those words” (12) and states that he will call his listener “Eyes.”

Animal does not remember a time when he could stand upright. As a newborn, he was “found lying in a doorway” (14); Animal assumes his family died “that night.” He grows up in an orphanage run by nuns. At 6 years old, he is struck by excruciating pains that lead to his back twisting until he can no longer stand. The French nun, Ma Franci, cries at his bed and comforts him.

Animal learns to walk on all fours. He is teased relentlessly by kids in the orphanage, but physical attacks become less frequent when he fights back. One day, the kids plant muddy fingerprints all over his body, “[l]ike a leopard” (16). They call him “Animal,” and “[t]he name, like the mud, stuck” (16).

One day, Animal and his dog, Jara, are begging for food outside a restaurant. A teenage girl, Nisha, tells him she’s seen him “doing scams” (18) around the city. She says he is “bright” (19) and that he and Jara should go to her father’s house so she can give him some work and he can meet “Zafar.”

Animal appreciates that Nisha “was the only person I knew who treated me as completely normal” (22). At her house, he meets Zafar, an impressive-looking man who disapproves of foul language and objects to Animal’s not having a human name. Zafar says the people are still suffering from the effects of “that night” and have no money to buy food or medicine; the work of his group “is getting money to those who need it” (25). He gives Animal the job of listening for injustice perpetrated by the government and reporting back so he can “put an end to it” (27). Zafar is seen as a saint in the city; Animal insists he can’t be a saint because he lusts after Nisha.

Animal sleeps in “the Kampani’s factory” (29), which was never decontaminated. Inside, “Mother Nature’s trying to take back the land” (31): the decaying building is full of poisoned overgrowth and animals. Animal imagines poison flowing through the pipes and out into the city, killing thousands. He says the building is haunted with ghosts and that if the Kampani had fixed their pipes, he’d have parents and “might still be a human being” (32).

In the mornings, Animal works for Zafar, then eats lunch with Nisha and her “solemn” (33) father Somraj, who used to be a famous singer before his lungs were destroyed. Somraj’s wife and infant son also were killed that night. He met Zafar through his “poison-relief committee” (33), which helped the poorest victims, those “no political gave a shit about” (33). The Kampani, which is far away in America, or “Amrika,” has a long-standing case against it, but refuses to come to court or compensate the survivors.

Nisha teaches Animal how to read and write Hindi and English, and Animal learns quickly. Growing feelings for Nisha make him think of what could have been if he hadn’t been injured. He sees Zafar as a competitor for Nisha, though he calls his hopes “stupid” (39) considering Zafar is “handsome” and “robed in the sweet odour of sainthood” (39).

At Nisha and Zafar’s insistence, Animal learns French and begins to visit Ma Franci at the convent. Ma lost all knowledge of Hindi and English that night and believes all languages other than French are gibberish; the other nuns think her mad. In India in order to spread the word about Jesus, Ma refused to leave that night, even though many in the orphanage died. One night, Ma does not come home. At the tip of Aliya, the little granddaughter of Ma’s friend, Huriya, Animal finds her sitting in an old tower singing and asking for tea.