The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Bazterrica, Agustina. Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2023.

Agustina Bazterrica's Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird is a collection of 20 short stories. All of the stories in the collection are written from a distinct point of view and employ their own individual formal rules. For the sake of clarity, the following summary employs the present tense and a streamlined mode of explanation.

In "A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound," the second person narrator is hanging laundry when her upstairs neighbor Menéndez throws himself onto her patio to his death. At first, the narrator feels offended by Menéndez's decision to kill himself on her patio. By the end of the story, she realizes that her neighbor's suicide has awakened her to her own life.

In "Roberto," a young girl believes there is a rabbit between her legs. When her teacher Mr. García hears what she is telling her classmates, he tries to take advantage of her after school. The rabbit, Roberto, lashes out at Mr. García, scaring him away.

In "Unamuno's Boxes," throughout her cab ride with a driver named Unamuno, the first person narrator becomes increasingly convinced that Unamuno is a serial killer. Instead of fleeing the car, she tells Unamuno to take her wherever he sees fit.

In "Candy Pink," the second person narrator is distressed over her recent breakup. She gives herself a list of instructions, hoping to coach herself out of her heartbreak. Too overcome by hurt and pain, the narrator ultimately drives herself to suicide.

In "Anita and Happiness," Pablo is so convinced that his lover Anita is an alien, he does everything in his power to prove his theory. When Anita finally disappears from his life, he runs into her doppelgänger on the train. He thinks the doppelgänger's presence is more evidence that aliens are invading his city.

In "Dishwasher," when Jane tells her friend Carrie that the Manhattan light and air are hurting her, Carrie urges her to see a doctor. Rather than curing her troubles, Jane's visit to the doctor only convinces her that what she sees and feels is real.

In "Earth," Camila decides to poison her abusive father so as to deliver herself and her mother from his tyranny. Furious at Camila for what she has done, her mother abandons her in the cemetery after burying her late husband.

In "Perfect Symmetry," a man asks the prison guards to give him one last evening in the kitchen before his death. Although he dies at the story's end, the man feels satisfied with the final recipe he has made.

In "The Wolf's Breath," the second person narrator stares at a wolf pacing behind a pane of glass. Although convinced the wolf will kill her, she also recognizes that every person is a wolf in their own way.

In "Teicher vs. Nietzsche," Teicher decides to kill his ex-wife's cat Nietzsche to keep him from ruining his afternoon watching a match on television. When Nietzsche turns off the television at the climax of the game, Teicher has a heart attack and dies.

In "The Dead," the narrator decides to kill herself and her father to reunite them with her late mother. She thinks this is the only way to relieve their sorrow.

In "Elena-Marie Sandoz," the first person narrator is so obsessed with the actress Elena-Marie Sandoz's role in Eyes of Pain, she starts writing to the actress, urging her to commit suicide. She believes that killing the real Elena-Marie will help preserve her perfection in the film.

In "The Slowness of Pleasure," a woman studies a painting of a woman at a museum. The longer she stares at the piece, the more convinced she becomes that she is in fact the woman in the painting.

In "No Tears," Juan de Tartáz is in the habit of attending strangers' wakes. At these events, he refuses to cry and makes light of the mourners' grief. His ritual goes awry when he starts seeing a mysterious woman appearing at the same strangers' wakes, too.

In "The Continuous Equality of the Circumference," Ada decides to turn herself into a circle. She eats round foods and cuts off her limbs to embody this idealized form.

In "A Hole Hides a House," a man kidnaps a 15-year-old girl and keeps her as his wife, cook, maid, and prostitute. In order to free herself, the girl stabs the man to death.

In "Hell," three women take a bird to the park in a cage. When the bird tries to get free, the women brutally kill him. The bird glimpses hell as he dies.

In "Architecture," a church is filled with ornate iconography. Even when worshippers fill the church and cry out to the images of Jesus, he does not hear them.

In "Mary Carminum," the first person narrator goes on a date with a woman he realizes he is not attracted to. Although he initially thinks the date will be entertaining, he soon finds himself in unfamiliar and uncomfortable circumstances. The date and her friends kidnap the narrator and their other dates and force them to worship the Virgin Mary.

In "The Solitary Ones," the second person narrator is relieved to board an empty train car. Her relief turns to terror, however, when the train suddenly stops and gets caught between stations. Alone and afraid, the narrator tries everything in her power to escape the subway.