The Suttavibhanga works through the Patimokkha, the core code of monastic training rules recited communally by the ordained sangha on observance days, rule by rule, and its distinctive method is to precede each rule with a narrative origin story explaining the specific incident, invariably some monk's or nun's lapse in conduct, that prompted the Buddha to lay the rule down in the first place, followed by a detailed word-by-word analysis clarifying exactly what conduct the rule does and does not prohibit.
The rules are organized by descending severity, opening with the parajika offenses, the gravest class, including sexual intercourse, theft, killing a human being, and false claims to advanced spiritual attainment, any of which permanently expels the offender from the monastic order, before working down through progressively lesser categories of offense requiring formal confession, forfeiture of an item, or simple acknowledgment. The rules for fully ordained nuns, numbering more than for monks in the Theravada recension, include a distinct additional set of provisions, among them the eight garudhammas, special rules of deference toward the monks' order, whose precise origin and even their canonical authenticity remain debated within different strands of the tradition and among modern scholars examining the text's history.