Summary
1
Jean Louise Finch (Scout) thinks the events leading up to her brotherâs broken arm was the fault of the Ewells, but her brother, Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem), says it all started the summer they met Dill. To avoid a fistfight, they went to their father, Atticus, who says theyâre both right.
Atticus Finch is a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama. Widowed when Scout was two and Jem six, their black housekeeper and loyal member of the family, Calpurnia (Cal) has been with them since Jem was born.
Small but spunky, Charles Baker Harris (Dill) comes to Maycomb for the first time in the summer of 1933 to visit his aunt. Dill, Jem, and Scout are inseparable and become fascinated with the townâs recluse, Boo Radley.
2
Scout is bright beyond her years and finds school unbearable. The first day is a disaster: She gets in trouble for knowing how to read and for innocently explaining to her teacher Miss Caroline, whoâs new to town and doesnât know the country folks well, why her classmate Walter Cunningham wonât borrow money for his lunch. She says the Cunninghams ânever took anything they canât pay back,â but in her misunderstanding, Miss Caroline takes it to be an offense and smacks Scoutâs hand with a ruler.
3
Angry with Walter for embarrassing her, Scout catches him in the schoolyard and gives him a whopping. Jem breaks up the fight and sets things right by inviting the hungry boy to their house for supper. During the meal, Cal marches Scout into the kitchen for a lecture on proper manners.
Scout hates school and wants to stay home indefinitely. Atticus teaches her about tolerance and getting along with people. Itâs a lesson that continues to resonate throughout Scoutâs young life.
4
Walking home from school one day, Scout finds some chewing gum in a knot-hole in the oak tree outside the Radley place, which is inhabited by Mr. and Mrs. Radley and their mysterious and reclusive son, Boo. Boo is the subject of much myth and a grisly town legend. Jem is horrified and makes Scout spit the gum out, but Scout claims she has been chewing it all afternoon and she âainât dead yet.â Later, theyâll find a velvet box with two Indian-head pennies inside.
Dill returns for the summer in fine form. The children make a game out of rolling a rubber wheel with Scout inside. But it crashes into the Radleysâ yard, which scares the living daylights out of her. Jem makes fun of Scout for being scaredy because he believes that Boo is dead. Scout knows heâs wrong because she heard someone inside the house laughing.
5
Jem and Dill leave Scout out of their plotting because sheâs a girl, so Scout takes safe harbor with her mentor and neighbor, Miss Maudie. The kind widow assures her that most of the rumors about Boo are untrue. If he were dead, Maudie would have seen him carried out of the house by now.
One day, the three kids hatch a plan to pass a note to Boo in order to get him to come outside. Their idea to deliver the note by attaching it to the end of a fishing pole and casting it toward the Radley place falls flat when Atticus Finch happens along and catches them red-handed. He is unhappy with their bothering of the man and tells them to leave Boo alone.
6
Dill is leaving in the morning, so itâs the last chance for the kids to get a look at Boo. Under the cover of darkness, they sneak under the Radleysâ fence and hoist Jem up to the window, but he canât see anything. A shadowy figure appears and they run for their lives. As Scout trips in the collard greens, the sound of a shotgun blast rings out.
Out of breath, but back at the house, Jem, Dill, and Scout see a crowd gathering down the street. They mosey over to find out what happened, and hear the false report that Mr. Radley shot a Negro in his collard patch. Atticus sees that Jem is not wearing pants (they got caught in the wire fence during his escape), so Dill makes up a story to appease their father for the moment. Jem knows he has got to produce his breeches by morning, so he goes back to recover them in the middle of the night.
7
On their way home from school several weeks later, Jem confides in Scout what heâd seen the night he went back to the Radley house to retrieve his pants. Apparently they had been folded neatly across the fenceâlike someone had been expecting him. And the tears in the cloth had been mended by hand.
The old oak tree becomes a treasure trove of riches from small trinkets to pocket watches. When Nathan Radley plugs the hole with cement, Jem is heartbroken.
8
That winter, the coldest on record, Mrs. Radley dies of natural causes, though her prosaic demise would have been more interesting to Scout and Jem if the story was that Boo had finally âgotten her.â
At the sight of falling snowâwhich she has never seen before, Scout screams that the world is ending, but Atticus assures her that itâs just precipitation. School gets canceled, even though Atticus thinks there is not enough accumulation to make a snowball. Jem spends all day building a snowman that looks remarkably like the Finchesâ grouchy neighbor.
The dayâs fun is overshadowed by a fire that destroys Miss Maudieâs home after nightfall. Jem and Scout are instructed to stand outside the Radley house while Atticus goes over to help.
When the flames are extinguished, they return to the house where Atticus notices that Scout is wrapped in a blanket that doesnât belong to them. They figure out that it must have been Boo who covered her up. Itâs then that Jem spills the beans about th...
