Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children but are not trusted not to steal the silver.

There is Aibileen, who is raising her seventeenth white child while processing the pain of her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking skills are almost as sassy as her tongue; and the white Miss Skeeter, who has just returned from college and wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. No one would believe they could be friends; even less would they tolerate it. Yet as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they begin to rely on one another. Each is searching for a truth. And together, they have an extraordinary story to tell.