At the beginning of the story, the hero and protagonist Sanger Rainsford is with someone named Whitney. They are both hunters. They discuss big game and hunting jaguars, and then they head off to sleep. During the night, Rainsford heads off into the sea with a yacht but then falls off it and must swim to shore. He reaches an area which he thinks he is a village. He realizes that it is smaller than that when he views more of it.
There, a man puts Rainsford at gunpoint with a shotgun, but a man named General Zaroff, the antagonist, makes him point the gun away from him. The general takes Rainsford inside with him and prepares a meal for him. He tells him that he has the best game to hunt in a place nearby, supposedly even better than jaguars and several other large animals. Rainsford accuses him of being a murderer instead of actually hunting for good reason. The general offers that Rainsford and he could go hunt together, to which Rainsford replies that he is tired from his swim. Rainsford later tells the general that he will not go hunting with him and will leave the area instead.
The next day, Rainsford makes a run for it. The general chases after him but is not able to keep up. Rainsford makes a tree collapse and give the general an injury. Additionally, Rainsford digs up a pit in order to hide from the general. The general praises Rainsford’s hunting tactics. Rainsford then turns away the general and his bloodhounds by placing a knife. The general eventually gives up and goes back home. Much to his surprise, he sees Rainsford hiding in the curtains by his bed. In the resolution, he then says that one of them will feed the bloodhounds while the other will sleep in the comfy bed.
