The story is presented as a first-person narrative, using an unnamed unreliable narrator who is awaiting execution.[3] He describes his lifelong love of animals and the many pets that he and his wife have taken in, including a large black cat named Pluto. The narrator and Pluto become particularly fond of each other, but after several years the narrator becomes an alcoholic and begins to mistreat his pets. After a night of heavy drinking, he believes that Pluto is avoiding him and seizes the cat, only to suffer a bite on his hand. Enraged, he gouges out one of the cat's eyes.
From that moment on, Pluto flees in terror at the narrator's approach; the narrator feels remorse for his cruelty at first, but soon becomes increasingly irritated at the cat's behavior. In a sudden fit of rage, he ties a noose around Pluto's neck and hangs it from a tree, where it dies. The narrator's house mysteriously burns down that night; he, his wife, and their servant escape unharmed but lose all their possessions. The house collapses, except for one wall that displays the indented image of a gigantic cat with a noose around its neck. The narrator is initially disturbed by this phenomenon but soon constructs a plausible explanation, thinking that someone may have cut the cat's corpse down from the tree and thrown it into the bedroom to wake him during the fire, where it struck a patch of fresh plaster.
Feeling guilty for his actions, the narrator subsequently finds another black cat at a tavern and adopts it. This cat is roughly the same size as Pluto and is also missing one eye, but has a large patch of white fur on its chest that Pluto lacked. Over time, the narrator begins to fear and loathe the cat, as it reminds him of his cruelty toward Pluto, and sees to his horror that the white patch is slowly taking the shape of a gallows. He tries to kill the cat with an axe, but his wife stops him; infuriated at her interference, he kills her instead and hides her corpse in a cellar wall. Upon finishing his work, he finds that the cat has disappeared and is able to sleep freely at night.
Four days later, the police search the house but can find no trace of the narrator's missing wife. He accompanies them into the cellar, boasting of the sturdiness of its walls and striking the one he has built to conceal his wife's corpse. An unearthly howl issues from behind it, shattering the narrator's mental state completely. The police tear down the wall and find the corpse, with the cat alive and sitting atop its head, having been walled in with it.
