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It is learned that Scout's mother died when she was two. Jem was 6 at the time of her death.

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Calpurnia, the African-American cook of the Finch family, acts as the motherly figure of the family. Scout dislikes her, but Atticus and Jem treat her with the utmost respect.

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Scout recalls her memories of the Radley Place. She describes it like this: "The Radley place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end."

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One summer, Scout and Jem come across Dill, who is their neighbor's nephew. He is staying in Maycomb for the summer, and every summer afterwards. It is learned that Dill's real father is absent in his life. Jem decides that Dill is worthy, and the three are as close as the three musketeers.

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Dill becomes fascinated with the Radley Place. It is written, "The Radley Place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings and explanations it drew him as the moon draws water, but drew him no nearer than the light-pole on the corner, a safe distance from the Radley gate."

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The Radley family always kept to themselves. They did not go to church. Mrs. Radley stayed well away from the neighbors. Nobody really knew how Mr. Radley made his living. "Jem said he 'bought cotton', a polite term for doing nothing." Mr. Radley and his wife had lived there for as long as anybody could remember. The shutters and doors of the Radley house were always closed on Sundays.

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According to neighborhood legend, when the youngest Radley boy was in his teens, he started something of a gang with the Cunninghams from Old Sarum. Nobody in Maycomb had the heart to tell Mr. Radley that the boy was in with the wrong crowd.

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The boys illegally drove a borrowed car, resisted arrest by Maycomb's own Mr. Conner, and locked the old sheriff into the courthouse outhouse. The boys came before the judge "on charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, and using abusive and profane language in the presence and hearing of a female." They were to be sent to a state industrial school, but Mr. Radley promised that he would keep Arthur out of trouble, so Arthur didn't have to go. Arthur wasn't seen again for fifteen years.

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At age 33, Boo Radley stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, whilst cutting up part of a magazine for his scrapbook. People suggested that Boo be sent to Tuscaloosa (an asylum), but Mr. Radley refused to send his son to any asylum. Instead, Boo was locked in the courthouse basement for a long while. Not long after, Mr. Radley dies. Boo's brother, Nathan Radley, replaces him in the Radley Place.

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Dill wants to make Boo Radley come out of his house. Dill dares Jem to go up to the door and knock on it. Jem is hesitant to go through with it, but he never backs down from dares. Since everyone is scared about it, Dill changes the dare. He makes it so that Jem only has to touch the house. Jem does it. Nothing happens.

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Scout finds two sticks of gum that were left in the knot of a tree next to the Ridley Place. Once Jem finds out that she chewed the gum, he forces her to spit it out and gargle with water. Even though nothing happened to her, he is still suspicious of the gum in the tree. At the end of the school year, they find a ring-box with two pennies inside it, in the same spot in the same tree. They start to get suspicious as to where the 'gifts' are coming from, especially when they find a ball of twine in the knot.

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Jem, Dill, and Scout sneak on to the Radley's property at night. They try to peak through the windows, trying to see Boo Radley. However, when Jem is looking through a window, Nathan Radley comes out with his shotgun. He shoots into the air, and it scares them away. When they get back to the house, they realize Jem lost his pants in the scuffle. At 2 in the morning, Jem goes back for his pants. When he gets home, he confesses to Scout that somebody had folded them and sewed up the tear in his pants. Somebody knew he was going to come back.

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During Scout's second year of school, they find an assortment of items in the tree. Two dolls made of soap, modeled after Jem and Scout. A pack of gum. A medal. A pocket watch on a chain with an aluminum knife. The kids decide to write a letter to whomever is leaving them things, but when they go to put the letter in, they find that it is filled with cement. When they see Nathan Radley, he claims he filled it up because the tree was dying. But when Jem asks Atticus if the tree is dying, he says the tree is perfectly healthy.

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As autumn changes to winter, Mrs. Radley finally passes away. While the children think Boo Radley 'finally got her', Atticus tells them she died of natural causes. It snows for the first time in Maycomb since 1885. The kids are thrilled, since they've never seen or heard of snow before.

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Miss Maudie's house, across from the Finch household, goes down in flames one cold winter night. The volunteer firefighters are able to put it out before it catches on anything else. Her house is completely destroyed. She isn't at all upset, however, she is happy that she'll be getting a new house. She claims to have hated her old house, and said she even thought about burning it down herself.

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Mrs. Dubose calls Jem's father a n*gger-lover, and constantly harasses the Finch family name. In anger, Jem destroys her garden. As punishment, Atticus makes Jem read to Mrs. Dubose every day for a month and a week. A month after Jem doesn't have to read to her anymore, Atticus informs Jem that Mrs. Dubose has died. She was addicted to morphine, and that's what killed her. It caused her to have 'fits', that almost seemed like strokes. Before she died, she giften Jem with a candy box that contained one of the flowers that had grown back after Jem destroyed them.

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Some themes that reoccur throughout the book are forgiveness, being the bigger person, and being tolerant. Themes of forgiveness are shown with Mrs. Dubose and Jem. Being the bigger person is shown with Scout and literally every character that has ever slightly inconvenienced her. Being tolerant is shown with Atticus and everyone who calls him names for defending african-americans.

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I thought Scout was a very immature character towards the beginning of the book, but as she grows and progresses, you can tell how she matures. She becomes less feisty, and doesn't get into fights anymore.

Jem was very mature from the beginning, spare the time they snuck onto the Radley's property, and his wrecking of Mrs. Dubose's garden. He was very sensible, and was always trying to teach Scout how to be the bigger person.