Abstract A new dust ion-acoustic wave structure called ‘Rogue wave triplets’ is investigated in an unmagnetized plasma consisting of stationary negatively charged dust grains, charged positive and negative ions, and electrons obeying kappa distribution, which is penetrated by an ion beam. The reductive perturbation theory is used to derive the nonlinear Schrodinger equation governing the dynamics as well as the modulation of wave packets. The rogue wave triplets which are composed of three separate Peregrine breathers can be generated in the modulation instability region. It has been suggested that a laboratory experiment be performed to test the theory presented here.