In 1960s Mississippi, Skeeter, a southern society girl, returns from college determined to become a writer but turns her friends' lives and a small Mississippi town upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen, Skeeter's best friend's housekeeper, is the first to open up, to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community.