Goatling is divided into three distinct chapters, which depict the increasing intensity of violent madness in a rural area of Brazil.
 
Lead by an abusive father, a family is split into factions, with two children following his abusive lead and taunting their brother, while their initally ineffective mother languishes in the background.
 
When the father pushes the absued son too far by urging him to commit murder, the mother urges her son to repent by riding the earth of their devilish oppressor. However, one devil is replaced by another, as the son continues his descent into maddening cannibalism.