Narrated from a first-person, past-tense perspective, "A Handful of Dates" opens with the narrator recalling that he must have been very young at the time the story takes place.
As a boy growing up in a Sudanese village, the narrator spends almost all of his time with his grandfather, apart from the time he spends learning to recite the Koran at the mosque or swimming in the river. The narrator loves his grandfather and is eager to please him by reciting the Koran and helping his grandfather by fetching his prayer rug. He believes he is his grandfather's favorite grandchild.
One day, the narrator asks his grandfather why he dislikes their neighbor, Masood. The grandfather says Masood is indolent, and that he had once owned all the land the grandfather now owns. Masood had inherited the land from his father, but after years of living a lifestyle that involved marrying many times, Masood's wealth steadily winnowed, with the grandfather buying more and more of Masood's land when he was desperate to sell. The grandfather says he has two-thirds of Masood's original land, and plans to buy the final third before Masood dies.
The narrator feels pity for Masood and wishes his grandfather won't do as he says. He thinks of how his grandfather never laughs, while Masood has a beautiful singing voice and powerful laugh.
Masood approaches the narrator and his grandfather to ask if they would like to attend the date harvest. The narrator senses that Masood doesn't actually want the grandfather to attend, but the grandfather jumps up eagerly. Watching from the side, the grandfather sits on a stool while the narrator stands. He watches Masood and is the only one who seems to hear Masood when he tells one of the boys cutting down the date clusters to be sure not to cut into the palm heart.
After various people collect the dates and sort them into thirty sacks, everyone moves aside and allows four landowning men to evaluate the quality of the dates. The grandfather wakes up and joins them, handing the narrator a handful of dates to eat. The men divide up the sacks, allocating ten for Hussein the merchant and five sacks each to the other men, leaving nothing for Masood. The grandfather tells Masood that Masood is still fifty pounds in debt to him.
As the sacks are loaded onto Hussein's camels and donkeys, the narrator feels the desire to reach out and touch Masood's garment hem. Masood makes a rasping sound in his throat, like a slaughtered lamb, and the narrator experiences a painful sensation in his chest.
The narrator runs into the distance, disregarding his grandfather calling after him. He feels hatred for his grandfather. He speeds up, feeling that he wants to rid himself of a secret. He reaches the river bank. Without knowing why he does it, the narrator puts his finger in his throat and vomits up the dates he had eaten.
