Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up in his bed to find he has turned into a gigantic bug ("vermin" in some translations—commonly thought to be a cockroach, but in the story itself he is called a "dung beetle.").  Despite this strange turn of events, he almost immediately begins to worry about the fact that his "indisposition" will make him late for the train.  He tries his hardest to get out of bed, noting worriedly the steady movement forward of the hands of the clock besides his bed.  His mother, father, and his 17 year old younger sister Grete, have taken notice of Gregor's extremely strange lateness and ask him to please open the door, which he has been in the habit of keeping locked. Gregor tries to think of ways of excusing his predicament to his boss, who seems to be very strict, brooking no mistakes, however small.  As if to confirm his suspicions, the chief clerk from his office does in fact show up at the apartment, wanting to know what is the matter with Gregor, since he missed the 5 a.m. train, even though for five years Gregor has been extremely conscientious in his work and has never been late.  Despite this, the chief clerk feels obliged to tell Gregor's family that not only is he late, but that his work has been unsatisfactory as of late—apparently he hasn't managed to sell enough for the chief clerk's liking.  Gregor has, meanwhile, been trying to get out of bed and finally succeeds, landing on the floor with a loud thump, which alarms his family outside.  Although he tries to speak, his voice quickly turns into an unintelligible squeak.  He then makes his way to the door, and tries to unlock the door.  Since he has no hands, he has to use his mouth, and with all his effort manages to open the door.  At the sight of him, his family is horrified, and the chief clerk staggers backward towards the door of the apartment, leaving his hat and stick behind.  Gregor wants to stop him and explain everything to him, but his family has bigger problems on their minds.  His father becomes very angry at him and tries to shove Gregor back into his room, but the doorway is too narrow, since only one of the double doors is open.  Finally, Gregor is kicked from behind into his room and collapses on the floor, and there is silence.

        Later that evening, Gregor wakes up and notices that his sister has brought him a bowl of milk with little pieces of bread in it, but he finds this undrinkable, even though milk had been, when he was a human, one of his favorite foods.  When Grete notices that it hasn't been touched, she takes it away and brings back a selection of food, mostly from the trash, on a newspaper, as well as the bowl filled with water.  Gregor doesn't care for any of the fresh food, but the old food from the trash suits him just fine, and, since he has been starving, he eats it with tears in his eyes.  From then on, Grete comes in twice a day, bringing him food every day and also trying to clean up his room.  Gregor is attracted to the light from the window, and drags a chair there so he can look out.  Grete sees this and keeps the chair by the window.  She seems to be quite proud of her ability to look after Gregor, since his father and mother seem to be unable to bear the sight of him.  Gregor notices that even Grete doesn't like to look at him, and so drags a sheet to the sofa and covers it, so that when he hides under the sofa, the sheet will hide him from sight.

        Gregor learns from what his father tells his mother and Grete that the family does have a little money, left over from when the father's business went under five years ago.  Gregor took a job for one of the creditors as a traveling salesman, and has been not only paying off the debts, but also providing for the family as a whole, who appreciated the money, but seem to have been taking it for granted.  This arrangement meant that Gregor's father could retire, and spent most of his time in his chair, too weak to move too much, and allowing his asthmic mother to relax somewhat.  Gregor's greatest dream, though, was to send his sister Grete, who plays the violin beautifully, to a music school, even though it was very expensive and his parents disapproved of Gregor event talking about it.  Nevertheless, Gregor had made up his mind to tell the family that he was going to do it on Christmas, brooking no opposition.
 
        Gregor finds a new pastime, crawling around the walls of his room, leaving a brown sticky liquid behind him.  Grete notices this and decides to move the furniture to give him more room to crawl.  So one day, when the father is away, she enlists her mother to help her.  The mother seems eager to see her son, or at least to be in his presence.  They start moving the desk and chest of drawers, but it is very slow work, since the mother has asthma and is weak, and Grete is only a child.  After a while, Gregor's mother, exhausted, suggests that perhaps taking away the human furniture would make him think that they've lost all hope of him turning back into a human, and that they were just leaving him to his insectoid fate.  Grete disagrees, and starts to try moving more of the stuff in Gregor's room.  Gregor agrees, thinking that he must keep his reminders of his former state, no matter how inconvenient.  But the two women continue to move He notices the picture of the lady in fur, which he had lovingly framed and hung on his wall, and determines that they would not take that, at least.  He jumps up on it and clings to it, and although Grete tries to warn away the mother, she sees Gregor and faints.  Grete shakes her fist at him and yells "Gregor!" angrily—the first time she has directly addressed him since his metamorphosis—and goes off to get something for her mother.  Gregor comes down and follows her, wanting to help, but after Grete gets some medicines, she turns around abruptly and one of the bottles crashes to the floor and cuts Gregor.  Disoriented, he stands there as Grete shuts the door, and Gregor feels guilty—his mother might be seriously ill or even dying, and all because of him!  After a little while, his father comes home from his job as a gofer in a bank, and Grete tells him that Gregor escaped and that the mother fainted, but she was all right now.  His father grows angry, telling Grete "You women never listen!" and pitches his hat across the room as he sees Gregor and says "Aha!"  He chases Gregor around the room, so slowly it doesn't look like a chase, and then picks up some apples from the table and begins throwing them at Gregor.  One misses him, but another lands right in his back.  The pain is unbearable, and Gregor sinks to the ground.  As he begins to lose consciousness, he sees his mother rushing from his room, leaving her petticoats behind her, going on her knees in front of him and begging him to spare her son's life.

        The family's situation has changed markedly in the approximately three months since Gregor's metamorphosis.  First of all, his father, who seemed barely able to walk when Gregor was supporting the family, has regained his strength enough to take a job as a bank messenger.  His mother now sews piecework, and his sister works as a salesgirl.  At night the three sit around the living room table, with the door to Gregor's room open so he can listen in.  Typically, his father sleeps in a chair, while his mother sews and his sister studies shorthand and French in hopes of getting a better job.  Eventually they have to practically drag his father to bed.  The family is exhausted and overworked, and this shows in their growing indifference to Gregor.  His sister spends a bare minimum of time cleaning his room, so that it has become absolutely filthy, and on top of that, they have started using Gregor's room to store useless furniture and other things.  Nevertheless, though, his sister determinedly guards her right to take care of Gregor, throwing a hissyfit when her mother one day makes the mistake of trying to clean his room.  They have hired an old charwoman to come in and do the heavy work twice a day; she comes in Gregor's room from time to time, trying to be friendly, saying to him, "Come on over here, you old dung beetle!" or "Will you look at that dung beetle?"  But Gregor is too tired to do anything; he just lies where he is.  He is now eating almost nothing, and although hunger gnaws at him day and night, he just can't bring himself to eat.
        Three boarders are taken in, very serious men who look the same, and they not only stay in the apartment but frequently eat their meals there.  On one evening, after they finish eating, they hear Grete practicing her violin and ask if she could play for them.  She does, but although the boarders are soon bored by the music, Gregor is greatly entranced by it: "Was he an animal, since music so moved him?"  He wants to take Grete away from these people who don't appreciate her playing and keep her in his room, where she can play all she wants and he will always greatly appreciate it.  She won't find him hideous, but will stay in his room of her own accord.  While he is thinking about this, he has been slowly inching forward into the living room where Grete is playing.  The music stops as the boarders notice him and yell, "Mr. Samsa!"  They are disgusted at having a neighbor like Gregor, and tell Mr. Samsa that not only are they leaving immediately, they don't even plan to pay for the time they've spent there already.  The family is shell-shocked, until Grete slaps her hand on the table and says, enough is enough—we must get rid of this creature, who has been making life unbearable for us.  His father agrees, but his mother only weakly coughs in response.  If there was some way to communicate with Gregor...  But that's not possible, says Grete; if this thing were really Gregor, he would have realized that humans can't live with such a creature, and would go away.  Gregor hears this and decides that yes, he must go away.  He slowly and laboriously turns around and goes into his room, the door being shut and locked after him.  Gregor lies in his room and thinks of his family "with tenderness and love," until he dies at three in the morning.
        The cleaning lady finds him the next morning, and is pleased to report to the family that "It's dead; it's lying there, dead as a doornail!"  The family goes to see and crosses themselves as Mr. Samsa says, "Now thanks be to God."  The lodgers get up and are shown Gregor's carcass, after which Mr. Samsa orders them out of his house, apparently having gained strength from Gregor's death and the end of the troubles with him.  They leave silently, the Samsas watching them go downstairs.  The family decides to spend the day resting and taking a stroll and so sit down to write letters of excuse to their employers.  The cleaning lady comes in to say that she's gotten rid of the thing and leaves; Mr. Samsa mutters that they'll get rid of her tonight.  They take the streetcar out to the country and think about their future.  They'll have to get a smaller apartment; the old one was too big anyway.  Their jobs really aren't so bad; they could lead to better things later on.  And as they come to the end of their journey back to the city, the parents notice that Grete has blossomed into a "pretty girl with a good figure" and silently agree that soon it will be time to find a good husband for her.  "And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions that at the end of their ride their daughter sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body."

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