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

There`s Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son`s tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they`d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...