The body of a drowned giant washes up on a beach. As the news makes its way around the nearby city, a group of researchers at the library decide to investigate for themselves. They go to the beach and discover that the story is indeed true. A large crowd has gathered, but everyone is reluctant to approach. Then a couple of fishermen walk across the sand toward the giant, and at this the crowd's hesitation disappears. The crowd inspects the giant, discovering that it's at least as big as a blue whale. He wears a shawl draped around his midriff and nothing else. People explore the giant; some even begin to climb on it and play around its face and head; scientists arrive to examine the body. The narrator returns to the beach three days later. The tide has pushed the body farther up the beach. The body has begun to look a little older as people have continued to explore the body and decay has begun. People from the public works and some circuses arrive to assess the situation. The next day there are fewer people at the beach, and the tide has continued to push the giant farther up the shore. The body is looking a little worse. The narrator finally climbs the supine giant. Stepping between the giant's ribs, his foot sinks into tissue: decay is well underway. The narrator is shocked to see that the giant's left hand has been amputated. A couple of days later the narrator returns again. The tide has washed the giant's body almost to the dunes. The giant's right hand and foot have been cut off and hauled away by fertilizer and cattle-feed companies. People have carved initials and swastikas and such into the giant's flesh; someone made a fire on his sternum. The narrator returns the next day to discover that the giant's head has been removed. Several weeks later the narrator returns once more to find scaffolding around the carcass, which is being cut up and rendered in a big industrial vat on the beach. Months later, some of the giant's bones, having proven too difficult to crush, begin to appear as decoration all over the city. The giant's pizzle has found its way to a sideshow, where it's misidentified as a whale's. The rest of the bones remain on the beach, where birds perch on them in the summertime.