The novel is told from the perspective of its protagonist, Scout Finch. Scout is a young girl growing up in Maycomb, Alabama during the US Great Depression of the 1930's. Scout, her brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill, are determined to get a glimpse of their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. While Scout comes up with a few ways to see what Boo Radly is up to, her attorney father, Atticus Finch, has decided to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a local white woman, Mayella Ewell, in court.