Early on in the book the narrator, Scout, describes her family, Atticus her father, and Jem her brother. She begins with an amusing story about Jem and his once broken arm. Soon she describes her home town, Maycomb, with could easily be any small town around America. .
One of the main events and continuing excitable element of the story is the mystery of Boo Radley. Boo's name is really Arthur and he lives next door to Jem and Scout, and in the summer when their friend Dill comes to visit from Mississippi, they try to make him come out. Boo is the neighborhood legend, stories fly around through neighborhood gossip ladies and children about what he has done, and is capable of doing. Scout and Jem finally make contact wit h Boo through a knot whole in the tree in front of his house. Boo begins to leave things in the tree for them, such as gum, a pocket watch, and soap dolls in the shape of them. They write a letter to put in the knot hole, but it is sealed up with concrete by Nathan Radley.
One of the more prominent elements of the story was Tom Robinson's trial. He was accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell. At the trial, Atticus defended Tom as his lawyer and show pretty hard evidence that Mayella was in fact beat by her father, Bob Ewell. He had Mr.Ewell write his name and it proved he was left handed, and the beatings where most likely done by someone left handed judging by the side they were on mostly. Tom lost his case and was taken to prison, where he tried to escape and got shot. This really troubled Jem.
On the smaller side, Aunt Alexandra comes to live with the Finch's, and is trying to make Scout act more like a lady. She tries to run the family, and things that Atticus is too loose with his kids. Somehow she manages to 'tame' Scout enough to have lunch with the ladies of the neighborhood, but this was not a very pleasurable experience for Scout. .
Halloween proves to be a very interesting time of year for Scout and Jem.
