Eugenia (aka Skeeter) returns to Jackson, MS after graduating from Ole Miss. It doesn't take long before she realizes she is estranged from the privileged life she has heretofore known, as well as from her former best friends. Skeeter is desperate to become a writer, longs to go to New York City and get away from the stifling atmosphere of the Deep South, while her friends live narrow mean little lives. Skeeter conceives the idea of writing a book about the colored women who do for the white families ~ which means cleaning their homes, cooking their meals, serving their meals, raising their children, while at the same time not even being allowed to use the family bathroom. She faces stiff refusals from the maids, until finally one of them ~ Aibileene ~ decides to trust Skeeter and consents to tell her story and somehow manages to convince a number of other maids, including the hotheaded Minnie, to tell their own stories. 
 So amazingly wonderful ~ both the novel and the audiobook performance. I laughed, I cried, and I felt happy and proud for these strong yet vulnerable women. This is one book I'm going to be rereading, probably more than once. Highly recommended.