The story revolves around an anthropomorphic, tricky, and clever fox named Mr. Fox who lives underground beside a tree with his wife and four children. In order to feed his family, he makes night visits to farms owned by three wicked, rude, cruel and dim-witted farmers named Boggis, Bunce and Bean and snatches away the livestock available on each man's farm. Tired of being outsmarted by Mr. Fox, the farmers devise a plan to ambush him as he leaves his burrow, but they succeed only in shooting off his tail.