The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Ingalls, Rachel. Mrs. Caliban. Open Group Integrated Media. 1983. Kindle.

Mrs. Caliban is a novella narrated by a third-person past narrator who focuses closely on the main character, Dorothy, who is a housewife. For three weeks, she has been hearing voices talking to her on the radio. After she says goodbye to her husband, who does not kiss her or even wave, she starts doing her housework, and then she hears an announcement on the radio about an amphibious animal called “Aquarius the Monsterman” who had been discovered in South America six months prior. The radio warned listeners that the monsterman was violent and that he had killed two of his keepers to escape. The radio also urged everyone to call the police if the creatures was spotted.

Dorothy continued her housework and thought about her son, Scotty, who had passed away in a freak accident. Shortly after this tragedy, Dorothy had also lost the baby she was carrying. Ever after, she and Fred had been sleeping in separate beds. Fred called and told her that he was bringing a friend home from dinner. Dorothy went to the grocery store and ran into her best friend, Estelle, who invited her over for coffee.

Dorothy went back home and started cooking dinner for Fred and his friend, Art Gruber. The two men sat at the table talking while Dorothy worked in the kitchen. Suddenly, the screen door opened, and the frog-man appeared in the kitchen before Dorothy. Instead of reaching for her knife, she offered him a piece of celery. He took it and thanked her, then asked her for help. She agreed to hide him from the authorities in the spare room where Fred never went.

When Dorothy woke up the next morning, she made Larry breakfast and they talked together. He helped her with her housework, and then they made love several times. Larry confided that the keepers he had killed had tortured and sexually abused him. Dorothy understood why he had killed them. Later in the afternoon, Dorothy went to the store to get food and shoes for Larry.

After she made dinner for Fred, Dorothy took the car and drove around with Larry. They went to the beach together and talked about Larry’s home. Dorothy promised to help drive him back down to the Gulf of Mexico, but she told him they would have to wait until her husband’s vacation time.

Over the next few days, Dorothy bought Larry a series of disguises and taught him to drive at night. He taught himself how to hotwire cars and then snuck out by himself at night to feel more independent. Dorothy and Larry spent the rest of the week getting to know one another. Dorothy went out to a fashion show with Estelle, who confided that two of her lovers were cheating on her and her teenagers were fighting. Dorothy comforted Estelle and then went home to Larry. He insisted on going out to the dangerous bamboo grove where gangs of teen boys hung out, and Dorothy went with him.

Fred began to pay more attention to Dorothy, and he asked her to come out with him to dinner several times over the next week. One night, Fred went out on his own and Dorothy watched television with Larry. Fred came home early, and Dorothy rushed out to meet him in the living room. She found him crying on the couch. He admitted he had been seeing someone who now wanted to expose the affair to Dorothy to hurt her.

Dorothy told Fred it was okay and suggested that they play Scrabble together and discuss what to do on their vacation. Fred suggested they take the vacation together and get their marriage back on track. Dorothy wanted to do so, but insisted they should take separate vacations so she could return Larry to the Gulf of Mexico first. He agreed, and they went to bed happy.

In the morning, Larry revealed that he had gone out and gotten into an altercation with five teenage boys, who he had killed. Dorothy told him it was okay, but then she saw on the news that one of the boys was Estelle’s son, Joey. Dorothy went to console Estelle, who revealed that, on top of the grief of losing her son, her daughter was now sleeping with one of Estelle’s lovers whom Estelle had been seeing secretly for years.

Dorothy went home and took Larry out for a drive. He begged to go to the bamboo grove, and she agreed even though she knew it was dangerous. When they got there, they found Fred having sex with Sandra. Dorothy and Larry ran away to her car and drove off. Fred and Sandra started chasing them in Fred’s car. They got into an accident and both Fred and Sandra died. Dorothy told Larry to run away and hide in the ocean. She promised him she would meet him at the beach in a day or two. However, after the funeral, Dorothy returned again and again to the beach, but Larry never came to meet her.