In the early part of the book it becomes apparent that Francie's mother is frequently abused both verbally and physically by her husband, Benny, a bitter alcoholic.

Francie seems largely unaware of the trouble at home, and spends the early part of the book in the company of his best friend Joe Purcell, hiding out in a chicken-house and shouting abuse at the fish in the local stream.

Francie takes this insult to heart, and begins to harass the Nugents when they are walking through the town, denying them access through a certain street until they pay the fictional "Pig Toll tax".

Eventually the guests leave, and Benny, drunk as usual, launches a verbal assault at his brother, claiming he is a fake and a liar, to the protestation and horror of Francie's mother.

He spends some time thieving in Dublin, and when he returns he discovers his mother has committed suicide, for which his father blames him.

During the course of his internment he is molested by one of the priests and befriended by a gardener who claims to have been an Old IRA member and close associate of Michael Collins.

After some months, the police enter his home to discover that his father has been dead for a long time, and Francie is committed to a mental hospital.

He decides to go there, and en route he stops off at a boarding house where his father had said he and Francie's mother had spent their honeymoon.

He leads them on a wild goose chase for Mrs. Nugent's body, and escapes from them for a time, but he is recaptured and eventually imprisoned after revealing where her dismembered corpse is.

"[1] Like many other contemporary and modern pieces of Irish literature, The Butcher Boy addresses concerns about Ireland's neocolonial status.

As Shahriyar Mansouri claims, the novel also examines the rise of a new wave of "decolonizing anarchic formations" in Ireland in the late 1960s and the 1970s, identifying split identity and non-conformism as outcries of a nation colonized by a post-colonial State.

[1] In particular, Guathier emphasizes that the instability of the community during the sixties—a time of rapid change and political violence within Ireland—shapes his dysfunctional family, and Francie's dysfunctional relationships with other characters such as Joe Purcell, and ensures that Francie does not feel part of the larger community, effectively turning him into the "Other".