Frailty starts when a young man (Matthew McConaughey) walks into the offices of the FBI and starts telling Agent Doyle (Powers Boothe) about a recent rash of murders. That is the start of a long and twisted tale of the childhood of two young boys and their father (Bill Paxton).
Some of the story is told by the young man who introduces himself as Fenton Meiks. He claims to know the identity of a serial killer who calls himself “God's Hand”. He says it is his brother Adam (Levi Kreis). When the agent asks him why he would think such a thing he starts telling the agent of his father and brother and his disturbing childhood.
The young Fenton (Matt O'Leary) grows up taking care of his kid brother Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) after the death of their mother. His father (Bill Paxton) is just another regular Joe working dad trying to take care of his two sons and he seems to be an honestly good father, hard working and normal. That is until one night when he wakes his two sons up saying he's just had a visitation from an angel and he has been instructed that they are supposed to be demon killers, God's Hand in retribution. This is very much an old testament God, one of fire and vengeance and flaming swords.
The angel delivers a list of demons to be slain and leads the father to the weapons they are supposed to use - an ax, a length of pipe and a pair of worker's gloves. Young Fenton thinks his dad's going nuts. Adam, on the other hand, takes to the new work with enthusiasm, supporting their father and telling his brother that he can see the demons when his father puts hands on them to reveal their sins.
Fenton resists with everything he has. He tells his father to get help, to stop killing people, but the dad just blithely keeps on reassuring him that they're not really people at all, they are demons, and they are doing the Lord's work. The more Fenton resists, the more dad tries to make him see the light.
Most of this is told from young Fenton's perspective. The two young actors, and Matt O'Leary particularly, does a very good job of it. His defiance, the moral core, his fear and his loss of faith are pitch perfect and you really feel for him. He is caught in an impossible situation and he can't get out. When he finally breaks down and goes to get the sheriff, dad kills the lawman and they bury him in the rose garden where they bury all their victims. All the while dad cries and tells Fenton it's his fault he's had to actually kill a human. Fenton spits at him that he's killed plenty.
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