Tommy, the first-person narrator in the short story “Gryphon,” is a student in fourth grade. When his teacher, Mr. Hibler, catches a cold, the eccentric Miss Ferenczi is brought in as a substitute to teach the class. Miss Ferenczi is very different from the other teachers that the students have had, and her lesson plans blend fact and fiction in a way that mesmerizes the students. 

Tommy quickly begins to admire Miss Ferenczi, and he defends her half-truths to his classmate Carl Whiteside. While Tommy is one of the first students to be swayed by Miss Ferenczi’s eccentricities, the other students are also mesmerized when she returns the following day. Tommy attempts to imitate her, but Carl tells him that he should not and that he will only sound foolish in comparison.

Mr. Hibler returns and some time passes before Miss Ferenczi substitute teaches for the class again. When she does, she decides to perform tarot card readings. She tells one boy, Wayne Razmer, that he will die soon, and Wayne reports her to the principal. The principal fires Miss Ferenczi, and Tommy attacks Wayne, telling him that “she was right” and that he was “just scared.”

Tommy admires Miss Ferenczi throughout the story, and his behavior reflects this. He is perhaps attracted to her teaching style because it is so different from anything else he has seen in his rural life. We get the sense that his home life is mundane: while the story does not show us much of it, what we do see is Tommy being told to do chores. In comparison, Miss Ferenczi provides a sense of magic and fantasy through her griffin-like stories and lies.