Pavee Lackeen tells the story of Winnie, a ten-year old Irish traveller girl, who lives with her mother and siblings in a ramshackle trailer on the side of the road in a desolate industrialised area of Dublin.

The film follows Winnie through several weeks of her life as she struggles for her identity as a young Traveller girl in contemporary Ireland. Winnie fills her time wandering through the run-down shops and stalls of Dublin's inner city, while her mother Rosie struggles to get her family housed by the local council. Pavee Lackeen presents an unflinching portrait of a marginalised community often living in Third World poverty in a modern, prosperous Ireland.

Filmed with a cast of mostly non-professionals, the film uses Travelling people playing characters near to their own and finding the core of the story in their own life experiences.