To Kill A Mockingbird

Six-year-old Scout Finch lives in Maycomb, Alabama with her older brother, Jem, and father, Atticus, a widowed lawyer, during the Great Depression. During one summer, they befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to Maycomb to stay with his aunt. The three children become fascinated with their neighbor "Boo" Radley. None of the adults around town like to talk about Boo and he hasn't been seen in years. The children feed their imaginations by making up rumors about Boo Radley amongst themselves and try to think of ways to lure him out of his house. The children have also been finding small gifts that were left in the hole of a tree on the Radley property, and little do they know that these are gestures of affection from the ever mysterious Boo Radley.

Atticus is assigned to defend a black man named Tom Robinson in court for the supposed rape of Mayella Ewell. Much to the disagreement of the community, Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson to the best of his ability. At school, Scout stands up for her father when other students make fun of him, even thought Atticus told her not to. Atticus also has do deal with a bit of criticism when a lynching mob turns up at Tom Robinson's jail cell while Atticus is there with him. Before the mob does anything, Scout, Jem, and Dill turn up and guilt the angry crowd into seeing the situation from Atticus and Tom Robinson's point of view.

(Spoilers Ahead)

When the trial comes, Atticus makes it known that he does not want Scout, Jem, or Dill to be present, so instead they watch in secret from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that both Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunk, are lying. He says that the lonely Mayella was looking for a friend and she was the one making sexual advances towards Tom Robinson and her father caught her in the act. Despite this unnerving evidence, the jury convicts Tom and he is sent to prison, where he is later killed for "trying to escape." Humiliated by the trial, Bob Ewell vows revenge on Atticus, and tries to reap it by attacking Jem and Scout on their way home from the school Halloween pageant. In the struggle, Jems arm is broken, but a mysterious man comes to their rescue. He carries Jem home and Scout realizes that he is none other than Boo Radley. The sheriff finds Bob Ewell dead in the forest and, rather than blame it on Jem or Boo, says that he simply fell on his knife when he was attacking the children.

Later, Scout walks Boo home and as she stands on his front porch, looking out on the neighborhood, she is able so see things how he sees them and wishes that she would have repaid him for the gifts he left in the tree and for saving their lives.