"The Lottery"

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” I was very confused. What exactly was the story about? Did the village people really just draw pieces of paper to find out who was going to get the punishment? When the head of the family draws the paper with a black dot on it, does that mean that the whole family gets punished or just that one person? To me, I understood that the whole family got the punishment, “Heads of families first (Jackson p. 407-408).” Why does Mrs. Hutchinson make a big deal that Mr. Hutchinson drew the piece of paper, something bad was going to happen to one of the family members anyways right? How can she say, “It wasn’t fair (Jackson p.409).” when everybody was doing the same thing every time someone drew a piece of paper. What exactly does that end mean, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her (Jackson p. 411).” Does that sentence mean that the beat her?