I will summarize each of the short stories separately. "The Feather Pillow" - a young wife gets progressively sicker and sicker, though the doctor cannot figure out why. She seems to get better as the days go on, but each morning she wakes up pale and sick. Soon, she dies. When they remove her body they see a small puncture on each temple and, in the pillow, there is a monstrous tick like creature that is engorged from feeding on the woman's blood each night.

"Sunstroke" - centers on a group of dogs that see death following their master during a hot day. They don't understand why their master doesn't see death as well, and thus do what is necessary to avoid running into him. Eventually the man pushes it too hard, and dies. The dogs lament his passing because it means change for them, and a new master who will not treat them as well.

"The Pursued" - the narrator meets a man who he is later told is pursued by madness. The next time they meet, he acts mad himself in order to mess with the pursued one. He continues this behavior, even after the other man asks him if that's what he's doing. He claims it is out of his control. This continues, with many mad trains of thought in which the narrator imagines elaborate and obsessive scenarios that turn out to be true. After a severe bout of insanity the pursued man is hospitalized to treat his madness.

The narrator goes to visit the pursued man in the hospital several times over a few months and in the end finds the man to be completely lucid. The very end of the story seems to imply further madness, however, caused by the narrator himself.

"The Decapitated Chicken" - a young husband and wife have a child, but when he turns 18 months he goes catatonic. They have three more sons, and at 18 months the same thing happens each time. Finally they have a daughter who grows normally. She is spoiled and loved while the four boys are ignored and despised. One day they see a chicken have its head cut off and they are fascinated by the sight of blood. Later that day they find the young daughter home alone, and they decapitate her and drain her blood in the same way the chicken was treated, horrifying the parents.

"Drifting" - a man is bit by a viper, and so he gets into a boat to go down river to get a cure. He gets worse, but then in the morning starts to feel better, and does not imagine how he could be dying. He continues to think about mundane, unimportant things as he dies alone in the boat.

"A Slap in the Face" - A worker is mistreated by his superior when he is slapped in the face. He is forbidden from working the site where the incidence occurred, and so must wait years to exact his revenge. When he does, he forces the man to walk miles, then beats him with a whip. He sets him adrift to die on the river nearby. The man flees, knowing he can never work in the area again.

"In the Middle of the Night" - The narrator is learning to navigate a treacherous river. He stops and meets a husband and wife who related an amazing story from their past. While trying to make their mark in the world delivery supplies up and down the river, the husband is stung by a ray. The woman is then forced to row upstream for many hours in order to bring him to a village where the necessary supplies to heal the sting can be found. She succeeds and her husband is saved. The narrator remarks to himself of the heroic nature of the act.

"Juan Darien" - A woman's baby dies from a plague of smallpox. She finds soon after a baby tiger who has lost its mother. In her despair, she nurses the tiger and it becomes her son. One day a man walking by here's the tiger call out and goes to the house, fearing a tiger has been brought inside. She is visited by a serpent who says that her love will make the tiger appear human. He will live that way until another mother accuses him.

The mother dies, and the boy grows to be hard working, if not particularly intelligent. One day he gets nervous and makes a tiger-like noise drawing attention to himself. The end result is he is accused, and is driven from the human land, a tiger once again. He returns to seek revenge on the man responsible for his outcast. He also marks his mother's grave with his own name - Juan Darien - and then lives with the tigers forever after that.

"The Dead Man" - a man slips and falls on his machete. As he's dying he considers everything around him, but does not accept that he is actually dying. Instead, he thinks he must only be resting, tired in the afternoon.

"Anaconda" - a viper discovers men have come to their jungle so they call a Congress. They send a snake to investigate, and the snake discovers that the men are there to capture vipers and extract their venom for immunization. One viper decides to attack them, but when she attacks the immunized dog she is captured. In the facility she meets a king cobra and together they kill two men and escape. Another Congress, with all snakes and vipers is called together, including a large anaconda.

Against some of the snake's better judgment, they decide to attack the men's horses. They do so in force, but are unable to kill the horses, the dog, or any of the men. They are tracked back to their lair and killed, but not before the anaconda is able to kill the cobra that incited the foolish attack. The anaconda survives the attack from the men, and is taken to live with them for a year before she is able to escape.

"The Incense Tree Roof" - a local record keeper is found to have done a poor job for the last 2 years when a government inspector reviews his work. He must, in only a few days, complete all the work he had done or lose his job. He does so, and battles through rain and flood to give the completed books to the inspector before the man leaves. When he hands the books over, the inspector trivializes all the man's great efforts, saying he only needed to assure him it would be done, not to actually complete it all in such a short time.

"The Son" - a man prone to hallucinations allows his son to go into the woods to hunt. The mother passed away some time in the past. He hears a gun shot, and considers what the boy may have killed. When the son does not return at the appointed time, he begins to worry. Finally he goes out to look for him. He finally sees his son, who claims he was hunting herons when he lost track of time. It turns out to be a hallucination, though, and the boy actually killed himself when he tripped over a fence.