The Help is a novel by Kathryn Stockett set in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. The story follows Aibileen Clark, a black maid raising her seventeenth white child, Minny Jackson, a friend of Aibileen's who has secrets, and Skeeter Phelan, a white socialite who has just returned from college. Together, they work on a project to write a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. The novel explores themes of racism, discrimination, and hope for a better future.