The Help

A closer look at the story

Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s. Freshly graduated from college, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan wants to become a writer rather than marry and settle down like the other young women she knows. Back home, she learns that the Black maid who raised her has mysteriously vanished. When she starts writing a household-tips column for the local paper, Skeeter asks for help from Aibileen Clark, who has raised white families' children all her life and who has just suffered the loss of her only son. What Aibileen and her outspoken friend Minny Jackson tell her leads Skeeter into a secret and daring project that will expose the racial divisions running through the town. Tate Taylor adapted Kathryn Stockett's book and directed this 146-minute 2011 film, which stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard in a powerful drama.