A writer becomes obsessed with his girlfriends former boyfriend, now a very successful novelist. To discover if the ex-boyfriend still has feeling for his old love, the writer joins the novelist's group therapy meetings.

A city girl teams up with a tomboy to solve the mystery of Bear Mountain, Molly Morgan, and the buried treasure as well as learn about true friendships.

Because of an unusual disorder that has aged him four times faster than a typical human being, a boy looks like a 40-year-old man as he starts fifth grade at public school after being homeschooled.

Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.