In the episode, Butters Stotch survives a murder attempt by his own mother after discovering his father's homosexual dalliances and must travel back to South Park in time for his parents' wedding anniversary at Bennigan's.
A few days before their anniversary, his mother, Linda, asks Butters to spy on his father, Chris, in order to find out what his gift for her will be so that her own will not fall short.
Upon returning home, Butters reports to his mother about his father's whereabouts, leaving her appalled by the news of her husband's proclivities, becoming visibly distraught and unhinged.
As the media centers in on the "missing child" case, the pair are inducted into a club of infamous, highly publicized characters whose loved ones have also been "taken from them by Some Puerto Rican Guy", including Gary Condit, O. J. Simpson, and John and Patricia Ramsey.
Butters, however, survives his mother's attempt to kill him in similar fashion to the infamous Susan Smith murder of her children, and brushes off the incident as an accident.
Written by series co-creator Trey Parker and directed by animation director Eric Stough, "Butters' Very Own Episode" was rated TV-MA in the United States, and originally aired on December 12, 2001, on Comedy Central.
In the DVD commentary, Parker and Stone indicate they planned to make Butters the fourth group member after Kenny was written off the show, and created this episode as a prelude to his assuming a more prominent role in the series.