“The Boy Who Talked with Animals” is told from the perspective of a man visiting Jamaica for a short holiday. He learns from a local worker that an American tourist was recently struck by a coconut while standing beneath a coconut tree on the beach. The narrator makes a mental note to avoid standing beneath coconut trees.

One day, while observing two lizards on his balcony, the narrator hears a commotion on the beach and sees people gathering around a group of fishermen. He approaches the crowd and sees a giant turtle on its back. The turtle is approximately five feet long and four feet wide. One of the fishermen holds the turtle by a rope around its middle as the tourists in the crowd laugh and joke. One man pokes the turtle’s head with a piece of driftwood, and the turtle snaps it in half. Another tells a fisherman he wants to buy the shell for his wife, but the fisherman explains that he has already sold the turtle to the manager of the hotel. The tourists grow excited at the prospect of turtle soup for dinner.

The narrator is appalled at the reactions of the crowd.