During a patrol at a zoo in Baghdad, two American soldiers, Kev and Tom, get into an altercation with the Tiger, which leads to this animal getting shot by Kev. As a result of the incident, Tom loses his right arm and Kev begins having hallucinations of the Tiger. This in turn culminates in a breakdown during another patrol and him being placed on suicide watch. Meanwhile, the Tiger, having been granted cosmic intelligence as a ghost, begins to have a spiritual crisis.
Tom, having been sent home as a result of losing his arm, comes back in search of the golden gun Kev used to kill the Tiger (which Tom in turn stole from and used to kill Uday, a son of Saddam Hussein, during a raid). He interrogates Kev, who has almost completely lost his mind and begs Tom for emotional support. Tom rebuffs him and Kev kills himself by attempting to cut off his own right arm.
The Tiger meets a young girl whom he saw burn to death and takes her to a garden. He thinks about the time he ate another girl and her brother alive and wonders why God made killing his nature.
Musa, a military translator, has taken possession of the gun as a result of Kev’s initial breakdown. He begins to see hallucinations of Uday, his former employer when he was a gardener. Uday taunts him with his sister, whom Uday raped and killed while he was alive.
Tom strikes a deal with Musa, the golden gun for military weapons. Tom drives them to an almost deserted leper colony, where he hid a golden toilet seat (also stolen from Uday). When Musa realizes there are no weapons, he freaks out, shoots Tom in the stomach, and drives back to town. Kev appears to Tom as he bleeds out and attempts to speak to a leper woman in Arabic, having acquired the same infinite knowledge in death as the Tiger did, only to find out that the only thing she can offer is water. Tom begins to cry and it’s implied he eventually dies of his wound.
Back in town, Musa attempts to kill himself when Uday appears congratulates Musa on the murder, who puts the gun down, disgusted. The Tiger confronts Musa, accusing him of being God, which Musa refutes and leaves. The play ends with the Tiger refuting God as well.
