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Plot summary – WJECKey plot details

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee centres on Atticus Finch’s attempts to prove the innocence of Tom Robinson, a black man who has been wrongly accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama.

Part of English LiteratureTo Kill a Mockingbird

Key plot details

Timeline with 13 illustrations and labels, showing the key plot details of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.
  1. Dill arrives in Maycomb and meets Scout and Jem.
  2. They plan to make the local recluse Boo Radley leave his house.
  3. Scout starts school and takes an immediate dislike to it.
  4. Scout and Jem begin to find gifts left in a hole in the Radley oak tree.
  5. Dill returns and the children continue their games based around Boo Radley. Jem gets his trousers caught on the Radley fence but when he returns for them they have been clumsily sewn back together.
  6. The hole in the tree is filled with cement and the children cannot leave their letter of thanks. No more gifts can be left.
  7. It snows for the first time in many years and Miss Maudie’s house burns down.
  8. Atticus shocks the children by shooting the mad dog.
  9. Jem beheads Mrs Dubose’s camellias when she teases him about Atticus defending Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping Mayella Ewell who is white. As a punishment, Atticus sends Jem to read to Mrs Dubose.
  10. Atticus sits outside Tom Robinson’s prison cell in order to save him from the mob.
  11. The trial begins but despite being innocent Tom is found guilty.
  12. Tom tries to escape and is shot dead.
  13. Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell’s father attacks Jem and Scout but he is killed by Boo Radley who leaves his house in order to save them.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' - plot and themes

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Chapters One to Three - Dill arrives in Maycomb
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