Orwell's story is set in Burma when it was a British colony. It is told by a first-person narrator who is a British policeman serving in Burma. His relationship with the Burmese natives is not a good one; he is hated as a foreigner and a repressive authority figure of white English society. He understands their feelings, but still resents them.
The action of the story concerns a rogue elephant that has killed a Burmese man. The narrator finds the elephant standing peacefully in a field. He does not want to kill the elephant, but he knows the large crowd of people who have followed him to the field expect him to do it. He shoots the elephant several times. The animal is badly wounded but does not die. Finally, the narrator leaves. He cannot stand any longer to watch the elephant suffer. Later, the man who owned the elephant protested its killing, but the narrator was not in legal trouble because the elephant had killed someone. The narrator is relieved.