A number of youths playing a pickup game of baseball discovered the body of an infant buried in the playing field. Following a brief investigation, Sheriff Andy Taylor contacted the Bureau’s Pittsburgh field office, which in turn referred him to Agts. Mulder and Scully. The agents traveled to the scene of the discovery. They were met there by Sheriff Taylor.

Agt. Scully inquired whether or not any women in the town who were pregnant were suddenly not pregnant. Sheriff Taylor replied that the only two women in town known to be pregnant were both accounted for and doing well. Agt. Mulder pointed to three men on the porch of a dilapidated house on the farm adjacent to the field, and asked Sheriff Taylor if they had been questioned. Sheriff Taylor was reticent, finally describing the Peacock farm owners as loners who kept to themselves. He informed the agents that the three brothers’ parents had been in a car crash, and that the brothers had hauled away the parents’ bodies. Sheriff Taylor added that no one had seen the parents in ten years, it was assumed that they were dead. Sherrif Taylor said the "boys" were feeble, and would not be able to offer any information. Agt. Mulder then suggested that they proceed to the police station to examine the body of the infant.

The station, being quite small, was without a lab or morgue. Agts. Mulder and Scully conducted the procedure in a small bathroom. Agt. Scully unwrapped the body and described it as having been afflicted with every rare birth defect known. She decided to order lab tests and DNA typing. Further physical examination found dirt in the nose and mouth, indicating the infant had been buried alive.

Agt. Scully reflected that it was unlikely that the infant had resulted from a single polygenic mating. Instead, the defects were autosomal dominant disorders, most likely the result of mutations from generational inbreeding. Agt. Mulder noted that Sheriff Taylor implied how the feebleness of the Peacock boys would most likely have precluded any normal contact with members of the opposite sex. Agt. Scully replied that a woman had most likely given birth to the child against her will.

Later, Agt. Mulder knocked at the screen door of the Peacock home. Receiving no response, Agt. Mulder started to open the door. Agt. Scully reminded him that they had no probable cause, so he desisted. Instead, Agt. Mulder produced a flashlight and began looking about the interior of the home from his vantage point on the porch. Seeing a pair of scissors on a bloody kitchen table afforded probable cause to make entry, which the agents did. Agt. Mulder collected the blood-stained scissors in an evidence bag. Blood was evident on the floor, as were boot prints that tracked across the floor. Agt. Scully compared a photocopy of a photograph of a footprint found at the crime scene to the boot prints on the floor, which resulted in a match. Nearby was a shovel covered with blood and mud. Agt. Mulder decided to request an arrest warrant for the Peacock brothers. Agt. Scully suggested that they check prior missing persons reports for a woman, as well as the vehicle identification number on the old white Cadillac seen parked in the front yard of the Peacock home.

Later, from the hotel, Agt. Scully spoke on the phone with Sheriff Taylor. He mentioned that he had issued descriptions and arrest warrants for the three Peacock brothers: George Raymond, Sherman Nathaniel, and Edmund Creighton. Agt. Scully asked him about the missing persons reports. Sheriff Taylor replied that his deputy was looking into it. Agt. Scully then asked the sheriff if he could recall finding any abandoned vehicles within the last eight to ten months, noting the white Cadillac they found at the Peacock home. Sheriff Taylor replied that they find many abandoned vehicles. Agt. Scully concluded the conversation saying they would "check on those in the morning."

The following morning, Deputy Barney Paster summoned Agts. Mulder and Scully to the home of Sheriff Taylor, where the sheriff and Mrs. Taylor had been found bludgeoned to death. When the agents arrived, they found Dep. Paster sitting on the front steps. Agt. Mulder noted tire tracks in the front lawn that clearly had been left by a large vehicle. Inside, Agts. Mulder and Scully examined the bodies of Sheriff Taylor and his wife. Agt. Mulder noted that Sheriff Taylor’s head exhibited extensive trauma and wood shavings consistent with being struck repeatedly with a wooden club. Dep. Paster offered a report on the Cadillac, which reportedly belonged to a woman from Baltimore who claimed to have abandoned the car on Highway 119 after running out of gas. Dep. Paster also delivered a package for Agt. Scully, which contained the DNA lab report. After reading the film, Agt. Scully declared that it must be in error. Agt. Scully stated that the dead infant’s cells would have had to divide triple-fold during cell metaphase to account for the gene imbalances described in the report. Agt. Mulder speculated that each of the three Peacock brothers was the father of the child, to which Agt. Scully replied that even in a case of autosomal breeding, a weakening of an ovum from a female member of the Peacock family would be necessary, and there were no female Peacock family members known to be living.

Agt. Scully suggested that they proceed directly to the Peacock home to take the brothers into custody. Dep. Paster supported Agt. Scully’s position.

The agents and Dep. Paster proceeded to the farmhouse. Once there, they decided to approach from two directions. Dep. Paster distributed bulletproof vests, then moved to cover the front door as Agts. Mulder and Scully proceeded to the rear. Equipped with radio headsets and binoculars, Agts. Mulder and Scully assumed their positions as Dep. Scully approached the front door. Through her binoculars, Agt. Scully noted what appeared to be a booby trap at the front door, but she was unable to warn Dep. Paster before he opened the door, at which point an ax swung down and struck him. From their vantage point, Agts. Mulder and Scully observed as the three brothers descended on the mortally wounded Dep. Paster and killed him. As a ruse, the agents circled to the hog pen and released the swine, causing the brothers to exit in order to herd the animals back into their enclosure. The agents thus gained entry into the house undetected, narrowly avoiding another trap in the process.

As they searched the house, Agts. Mulder and Scully found a cot on a set of wheels, under a bed. Pulling it out, the agents found a woman, without arms or legs, lying on the board. Agt. Mulder comforted the woman, assuring her that she would be removed to a safe place. Agt. Scully, noting photographs around the room, identified the woman as Mrs. Peacock, the mother of the three brothers. Agt. Mulder looked outside through the kitchen window to check on the brothers, who were still herding the hogs back into the pen. Agt. Scully’s assessment of the situation was that Edmund Peacock, the oldest, was the father and brother of George Peacock and Sherman Peacock. Agt. Mulder suggested that Agt. Scully attempt to convince Mrs. Peacock that she could help end the situation without any of the brothers getting hurt. Agt. Mulder added that he would keep watch on the brothers.

Agt. Scully returned to Mrs. Peacock and attempted to convince her to agree to leave the house. Agt. Scully stated that if Mrs. Peacock left with them, she would obtain full medical attention that would relieve her pain. Mrs. Peacock, resisting Agt. Scully, replied that there was no pain and that none of the family could feel any pain whatsoever.

Agt. Mulder then alerted Agt. Scully that the brothers were returning to the house. He then blocked the door by moving the kitchen table in front of it. Agt. Mulder identified himself and unholstered his weapon as one of the brothers shoved the door against the table while another entered from the living room. Agt. Scully, seeing Agt. Mulder outnumbered, fired her weapon at George Peacock, wounding him but not stopping his forward motion. Sherman Peacock burst through the door and both brothers grabbed Agt. Mulder, wrestling him to the ground and separating him from his weapon. Agt. Scully diverted their attention by claiming to have Mrs. Peacock. Agt. Mulder was then able to regain control of his weapon. He fired point-blank at George Peacock cutting him down. Sherman Peacock pursued Agt. Scully, who dropped to the floor as Sherman Peacock inadvertently activated a trip-wire which sent a stake into his midsection and pinned him to the floor. Seeing that Agt. Scully was unhurt, Agt. Mulder went to Mrs. Peacock’s room and found it empty. During the struggle, Edmund Peacock had spirited Mrs. Peacock out of the house and escaped in the Cadillac.

Agt. Scully notified the state police, who put out an APB and set up roadblocks over a thirty-mile radius. However no trace of the pair has been found to date.