Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, the tale is told through the perspective of 3 people- Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are black domestic helps to rich white women, while Skeeter is an unmarried white woman living with her mother. Skeeter witnesses the horrid racism and abuse that goes on in their town, and decides to write a book to expose that. How does a rich white woman in the deep South write a book about civil rights when she still uses a different bathroom as the help? With the assistance of Aibileen and Minny and eleven other helpers, Skeeter launches into a literary civil rights movement and thereby shaking up lives in peaceful Jackson.
This book is an absolute page-turner despite being more than 500 pages long. The reference to real events leading up to the civil rights movement lends a certain Forrest Gump charm to this tale.