The novel is focused around the boy developing a strong bond with his father, a butcher who slaughters hogs, and his pet pig named Pinky, and is set in the fictional town of Learning, Vermont. Robert Newton Peck uses his own childhood as a Shaker to reveal the problems Robert faces growing into manhood. For example, he helps his neighbor's cow have two baby bulls and saves one's life, while risking his. As reward his neighbor gives him his prized pet pig. As the pig grows to maturity it turns out to be sterile, though otherwise ideal. Eventually the family faces such economic hardship that Pinky is slaughtered. The slaughter and butchering of Pinky is extremely graphic, but accurate. The boy assists his father in this act, holding his beloved pet down while his father kills and makes sausage out of it.

The book takes place roughly during the Calvin Coolidge presidency. The novel is loosely based on Peck's on life, though there is much dispute about the accuracy of known information about Peck's childhood.

This book has often been challenged, that is, people have demanded that it be removed from libraries. It was 16th on the American Library Association's list of books most often challenged in the 1990s. - From WIki