La historia presenta a un narrador anonimo obsesionado con el ojo enfermo (que llama "ojo de buitre") de un anciano con el cual convive. Finalmente decide asesinarlo. El crimen es estudiado cuidadosamente y, tras ser perpetrado, el cadaver es despedazado y escondido bajo las tablas del suelo de la casa. La policia acude a la misma y el asesino acaba delatandose a si mismo, imaginando alucinadamente que el corazon del viejo se ha puesto a latir bajo la tarima. No se sabe cual es la relacion entre victima y asesino. Se ha sugerido que el anciano representa en el cuento a la figura paterna, y que su "ojo de buitre" puede sugerir algun secreto inconfesable. La ambiguedad y la falta de detalles acerca de los dos personajes principales estan en agudo contraste con el detallismo con que se recrea el crimen. It is unclear what relationship, if any, the old man and his murderer share. The narrator denies having any feelings of hatred or resentment for the man. He states: 'I loved the old man He had never wronged me He had never given me insult '. He also denies the assumption that he killed for greed: 'Object there was none.', 'For his gold I had no desire.' It has been suggested that the old man is a father figure, the narrator's landlord, or that the narrator works for the old man as a servant, and that perhaps his "vulture-eye" represents some sort of veiled secret, or power. The ambiguity and lack of details about the two main characters stand in stark contrast to the specific plot details leading up to the murder."