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Plot Summary

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is a short story that begins with a husband and wife, Pelayo and Elisenda, finding a very old man in their courtyard during a stormy afternoon. They watch in astonishment the enormous wings attached to the body of the old man as he struggles to get up from the mud. The couple attempts to communicate with the old man but are unable to as he speaks in a different language. Their neighbor comes over and lets them know that the old man is an angel who has come to take their sick child. Pelayo locks the angel in a chicken coop overnight. Early next morning the local priest, Father Gonzaga, with the rest of the community in town, tests the old man to determine whether he is really an angel, with debated results. Elisenda, tired of having the community at her house, decides to charge an entrance fee to see the angel. The family becomes rich and builds a mansion with the money collected. The crowd soon loses interest in the angel as another freak has arrived in the community. The new town attraction is a woman who disobeyed her parents when she was young and was transformed into a tarantula, and now tells her misfortunes to the audience. In order for her to continue telling her stories, the people of the town tossed meatballs into her mouth as it was "her only means of nourishment." Meanwhile, no longer trapped in the chicken coop, the angel is free to roam around the house until one day he leaves the house and flies off away into the distance.