Frank Cauldhame has built in the attic of his house a Wasp Factory - a device consisted of the dial and traps where he launches a wasp, and from where she goes depends how she will die. Frank talks with the factory, asks its advice and even makes sacrifices for it - rats, gulls, dragonflies.
Frank is not registered, he does not study anywhere; however, he reads books at home from his father's library. As a child, a terrible incident occurred with him, he knows about it only from the stories of his father: a bulldog named Old Sol bit off his genitals and he is disfigured forever. The dog was killed, of course, but the boy got angry at the whole world, and starts to take revenge.
His father is a liar and paranoid, he constantly puts some experiments in his study, which he keeps locked all the time. Frank dreams to get in there. His mother, father's second wife - Agnes, came only once: to give birth to Paul. Then she ran away again, crushing his father with a motorcycle, and he remained crippled for the end of his life.
Frank has killed three people: his cousin Blyth,because he had killed his rabbits (Frank stuffed a viper in his prosthetic leg when Blythe was sleeping), his younger brother, Paul, because he was born at a moment when the Old Sol disfigured him. Frank decided that the spirit of the dog moved into Paul, and cousin Esmeralda just for balance - 2 masculine children, therefore, it was necessary to kill someone feminine (he had constructed a huge kite and put into the fly together with Esmeralda).
Frank’s brother Erick went mad when was engaged in medicine practice at the University. He saw the child's brains being devoured by worms, and he had an attack of nerves. Eric began to set dogs to the fire, and feed children with worms. He was taken to the hospital, but he managed to escape. Throughout the story, he hides, calls home to talk with Frank and makes hysterics. At the end of the book he comes home and sets fire to a barn, where his father keeps the powder. However, the explosion did not cause much damage.
At that time Frank gets into his father's study and finds tiny male genitals, which are made of wax, male hormones and tampons. He furiously rushes to his father and demands that him to explain what it means. It turns out that Frank is not Frank but Frances, a girl. When he was bitten, his father saw an excellent opportunity to experiment, as well as a way to reduce the female factor in his life. He slipped male hormones in the food, so Frank has bristles, and there were monthly periods. It now appears that there is nothing to take revenge for.
