The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Murray, Paul. The Bee Sting. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.

Paul Murray's novel The Bee Sting is set in an unnamed town in Ireland in the present day. The novel traces the lives of the four Barnes family members: Dickie, Imelda, Cass, and PJ. Throughout The Bee Sting, Murray toys with conventional notions of structure, form, and point of view. He uses both the second and third person points of view, and the present and past tenses. For the sake of clarity, the following summary relies upon the present tense and abides by a streamlined, linear mode of explanation.

Dickie Barnes grows up with his father Maurice, mother Peggy, and brother Frank in his small, Irish hometown. Maurice is a successful businessman and runs a car dealership and garage. Although his life is nominally stable, Dickie feels like an outsider in his family and community. Frank is more energetic and likable, while Dickie is reserved and bookish.

When Dickie leaves home to attend Trinity College in Dublin, he feels free for the first time in his life. He claims his sexuality and falls in love with a man named Willie. Just as they are starting their life together, Dickie learns that Frank has died in a car accident.

Dickie returns home for Frank's funeral. Realizing that his parents and Frank's fiancé Imelda need him, Dickie decides to abandon his relationship with Willie and his life in Dublin. He marries Imelda and takes over the family business.

Meanwhile, Imelda is crushed by Frank's death. She had a tumultuous home life growing up, and had come to see Frank as her escape. His untimely passing unmoors her. In the wake of this tragedy, therefore, she comes to rely upon Dickie for a sense of stability and renewal. Together, they have Cass and PJ and start a family.

When Cass is in her final year of high school, Dickie's business starts to fail. The family begins to panic as a result. Cass fears that her parents will not be able to afford her Trinity tuition. She is desperate to move to Dublin with her best friend Elaine and to establish herself as an independent young woman. Meanwhile, PJ feels alone and confused. His parents' constant fighting has made his home life miserable. He, Cass, and Imelda all hope that Maurice will return from his life in Portugal and financially deliver them.

When Maurice does return, he discovers that the family business is in a worse state than he imagined. Furthermore, with the help of his new associate Big Mike, Elaine's father, Maurice realizes that Dickie and his former employee Ryszard have been cheating customers and stealing from the company.

Some months prior, Dickie became sexually involved with Ryszard. This affair was a distraction from Dickie's lingering sadness over Willie, his repressed sexuality, and his unattended grief over Frank. Then one day, Ryszard blackmailed Dickie. Dickie robbed the company accounts to pay off Ryszard so he would not post sexually explicit videos of them online.

To escape his father's wrath, his wife's disappointment, and his children's shame, Dickie retreats into the woods. He starts building an apocalyptic haven with his friend Victor. He hopes that the world will end soon so that all of his troubles will go away.

Cass leaves home for college. However, life in Dublin is not the dream she hoped it would be. Meanwhile, PJ becomes more and more worried about Dickie's mental health and Imelda's happiness. Imelda has gotten involved with Big Mike. She thinks he understands her, and hopes he might deliver her from her trouble.

Ryszard resurfaces and blackmails Dickie again. Victor tells Dickie that the only way for him to resolve the issue is to kill Ryszard. Dickie agrees, as he has no way to pay off Ryszard again.

On a stormy, moonless night, Dickie lures Ryszard to his hideout in the woods. When Ryszard comes for the money, Dickie will shoot him. Meanwhile, Cass, PJ, and Imelda are on their way into the woods to find and deliver Dickie. When Dickie sees their figures approaching in the dark, he thinks Ryszard has arrived with reinforcements and starts shooting. He tells himself that his act of violence is out of love for his family.