The following version of this short story was used to create the guide: Nieva, Michel. "Dengue Boy." The Best Short Stories 2022: The O. Henry Prize Winners. Vintage Anchor Publishing, 2022.

Michel Nieva's short story "Dengue Boy" is told from the third person point of view and written in the past tense. The short story is set in a futuristic version of Argentina. This world is defined by monumental environmental changes that occurred in the year 2197. The short story embraces elements of fantasy and magical realism, and takes some liberties with structure and form. The following summary abides by a more streamlined mode of explanation.

Dengue Boy lived with his mother in a small Argentinian village. Born a mosquito, Dengue Boy quickly became the subject of ridicule and abuse at his school and throughout his community. His peers did not simply ignore him, but berated, teased, and gossiped about him. They often said that Dengue Boy was a mosquito because the disgusting plot where his family lived bred a mutant species that impregnated his mother and killed his father. Alternatively, they would say that Dengue Boy's father was the mutant bug and had ejaculated his toxic sperm into Dengue Boy's mother, resulting in Dengue Boy's hideous appearance.

Dengue Boy tried to ignore and avoid his classmates' constant harassment. However, he was often upset and always alone.

Dengue Boy's home life brought him little comfort or reprieve. Because his father was absent, his mother already had a hard life. She was forced to work seven days a week in Santa Rosa, a city that took a lengthy ferry ride to reach. She was almost always gone from the house. When she was home, she frequently got upset with Dengue Boy. Because Dengue Boy's school experience had taught him he was an unlovable freak, Dengue Boy interpreted his mother's behavior as further fuel for this belief. He was convinced that she also hated him and that he was to blame for having ruined her life.

One night, when Dengue Boy heard his mother laughing while on a virtual date in her room, he was overcome by despair. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw what everyone else saw: a disgusting monster. To make matters worse, his mother seemed to believe that he would one day become a violent killer. She therefore gave him a blood sausage to suck on at school if his bloodlust instincts should surface.

When school ended for the summer, Dengue Boy had to attend a camp at a filthy public beach in Victorica. The squalid nature of the camp was not the worst part about it. Rather, because the environment was unfamiliar, Dengue Boy knew it would pose another litany of dangers for him.

Shortly after arriving, a boy named El Dulce rose to power amongst the boys. When he realized that Dengue Boy was not following his instructions, he began to jeer and taunt. The other boys quickly joined in, having learned that to disobey El Dulce was to endanger themselves. They surrounded Dengue Boy and called him a series of names that they did not understand but believed were offensive and powerful. Contrary to his past experiences, Dengue Boy did not feel afraid or upset. He stopped seeing El Dulce as a human bully, and began to regard him as piece of meat he could eat. He also started to see himself as Dengue Girl.

Dengue Girl was fearless and fierce. She attacked El Dulce, slit him open, and sucked his blood. When the gym teacher appeared to put an end to the violent scene, Dengue Girl attacked and killed him, too. The other boys ran, but Dengue Girl bit and infected all of them. Then she flew away from Victorica. She would go to Santa Rosa and exact her revenge on all of the people who had made her and her mother suffer.