The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Kochai, Jamil Jan. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak. Penguin Random House LLC, 2022.

Jamil Jan Kochai's The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is a collection of 12 short stories. Each of the collected stories is written from a distinct point of view and lives within a unique narrative form. The following summary relies upon the present tense and embraces a linear mode of explanation.

In "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain," Mirwais finally saves up to buy the new Metal Gear Solid video game. Although his father wants to talk to him on the day he brings the game home, Mirwais avoids him, locking himself in his room with the game. Over the course of his time playing, however, Mirwais becomes increasingly unnerved by the indistinguishability of the game's world and his father's past.

In "Return to Sender," Amina, Yusuf, and their son Ismael have been living in Kabul for six months. They returned to their home country because Amina felt guilty for staying in the States. She wanted to use her medical degree to help her people. When she and Yusuf discover that Ismael has been kidnapped and murdered, the couple realizes they will be stuck in Afghanistan forever.

In "Enough!," Rangeena is overwhelmed by her son's nagging. Desperate to escape his and her daughters' constant admonishments, she tries to drive herself to the airport so she can fly back to Kabul. On her way out, she hits her son with the car.

In "Bakhtawara and Miriam," Bakhtawara decides to marry her sister's fiancé Atal after her sister abandons him days before the wedding. She fails to see her friend Miriam's failed marriage as a warning.

In "Hungry Ricky Daddy," the narrator's roommate Ricky Daddy becomes obsessed with their classmate Nabeela. Desperate to prove his love to her and devotion to her cause, Ricky launches a hunger strike in support of Nabeela's imprisoned fiancé.

In "Saba's Story," Marwand is skeptical when his father Agha returns to Afghanistan to find a buried nugget of gold in his ancestral orchard. When he later marries Saba, he asks her to clarify Agha's many tales. Saba urges him to see the beauty in these fables.

In "Occupational Hazards," the protagonist has spent his entire life trying to survive. In his old age, he feels that his life and identity are a mere compilation of his survival attempts.

In "A Premonition; Recollected," although Mor watched two gunmen murder her brothers, in her old age, she can only remember the image of the gunmen. She does not recall that they killed her brothers.

In "Waiting for Gulbuddin," the narrator and his companions' make-believe game gradually blurs with their reality. When the narrator kills a donkey with a stick he is pretending is a gun, his imaginary world dissipates.

In "The Parable of the Goats," after learning of his son's murder, Merzagul throws a sword into the sky, hoping to injure Allah. The sword hits an American bomber pilot instead. When he falls into Merzagul's village, Merzagul lets the villagers do as they like to the pilot.

In "The Tale of Dully's Reversion," when Dully runs across his mother Shakako's prayer rug, he turns into a monkey. Although Shakako does everything in her power to restore Dully to his human form, Dully becomes comfortable living as a monkey. Shakako grieves him after he dies in a battle in Afghanistan.

In "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak," the narrator watches Hajji Hotak and his family. Although he is a government agent, he does not know of what Hajji is suspected. Over the course of the assignment, he becomes attached to Hajji and his family, even calling an ambulance for Hajji after he falls and hits his head.