Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women Twenty two year old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss She may have a degree but it is 1962 Mississippi and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine the woman who raised her but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone Aibileen is a black maid a wise regal woman raising her seventeenth white child Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son who died while his bosses looked the other way She is devoted to the little girl she looks after though she knows both their hearts may be broken Minny Aibileen s best friend is short fat and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi She can cook like nobody s business but she can t mind her tongue so she s lost yet another job Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town The Washington Post Sybil SteinbergSouthern whites guilt for not expressing gratitude to the black maids who raised them threatens to become a familiar refrain But don t tell Kathryn Stockett because her first novel is a nuanced variation on the theme that strikes every note with authenticity In a page turner that brings new resonance to the moral issues involved she spins a story of social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide - from Amzon