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Atticus, Scout says, is somewhat older than most of the other fathers in Maycomb. Calpurnia calls Atticus, who returns home with Heck Tate, the sheriff of Maycomb. Heck brings a rifle and asks Atticus to shoot the animal. Later, Miss Maudie tells Jem and Scout that, as a young man, Atticus was the best shot in the county-"One-shot Finch." Scout is eager to brag about this, but Jem tells her to keep it a secret, because if Atticus wanted them to know, he would have told them.

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At school, Scout nearly starts a fight with a classmate named Cecil Jacobs after Cecil declares that "Scout Finch's daddy defends niggers." Atticus has been asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Scout generally gets along well with Uncle Jack, but when he arrives in Maycomb, she begins cursing in front of him.Jack has Scout sit on his lap and he warns her not to curse in his presence. There, Scout endures Francis, Alexandra's grandson, who had been dropped of fat Finch's Landing for the holiday. Scout thinks Francis is the most "Boring" child she has ever met. One night, Francis tells Scout that Dill is a runt and then calls Atticus a "Nigger-lover." Scout curses him and beats him up. Francis tells Alexandra and Uncle Jack that Scout hit him, and Uncle Jack spanks her without hearing her side of the story. Scout makes him promise not to tell Atticus because Atticus had asked her not to fight anyone over what is said about him. Later, Scout overhears Atticus telling Jack that Tom Robinson is innocent but doomed, since it's inconceivable that an all-white jury would ever acquit him.

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Jem and Scout haul as much snow as they could from Miss Maudie's yard to their own. The figure's likeness to Mr. Avery is so strong that Atticus demands that they disguise it. Jem places Miss Maudie's sunhat on its head and sticks her hedge clippers in its hands, much to her chagrin. The neighbors help her save her furniture, and the fire truck arrives in time to stop the fire from spreading to other houses, but Miss Maudie's house burns to the ground. In the confusion, someone drapes a blanket over Scout. When Atticus later asks her about it, she has no idea who put it over her. Atticus tells them to keep it to themselves, and Scout, realizing that Boo was just behind her, nearly throws up. Despite having lost her house, Miss Maudie is cheerful the next day.

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A few days later, after school has begun for the year, Jem tells Scout that he found the pants mysteriously mended and hung neatly over the fence. Unsurprisingly, Scout is as unhappy in second grade as she was in first, but Jem promises her that school gets better the farther along one goes. The next day, Jem and Scout find that the knothole has been filled with cement. When Jem asks Mr. Radley about the knothole the following day, Mr. Radley replies that he plugged the knothole because the tree is dying.

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Jem and Dill obey Atticus until Dill's last day in Maycomb, when he and Jem plan to sneak over to the Radley Place and peek in through a loose shutter. They escape under the fence by the schoolyard, but Jem's pants get caught on the fence, and he has to kick them off in order to free himself. When Atticus asks Jem where his pants are, Dill interjects that he won Jem's pants in a game of strip poker. Jem responds that they were just playing with matches. Late that night, Jem sneaks out to the Radley Place, and retrieves his pants.

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She tells Scout that Boo Radley is still alive and it is her theory Boo is the victim of a harsh father, a "Foot-washing" Baptist who believed that most people are going to hell. Miss Maudie adds that Boo was always polite and friendly as a child. Jem and Dill plan to give a note to Boo inviting him out to get ice cream with them. They try to stick the note in a window of the Radley Place with a fishing pole, but Atticus catches them and orders them to "Stop tormenting that man" with either notes or the "Boo Radley" game.

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After school one day, she passes the Radley Place and sees some tinfoil sticking out of a knothole in one of the Radleys' oak trees.On the last day of school they find two old "Indian-head" pennies hidden in the same knothole where Scout found the gum and decide to keep them.On Scout's turn, she rolls in front of the Radley steps, and Jem and Scout panic.Eventually Atticus catches them and asks if their game has anything to do with the Radleys.

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At lunch, Scout rubs Walter's nose in the dirt for getting her in trouble, but Jem intervenes and invites Walter to lunch. At the Finch house, Walter and Atticus discuss farm conditions "Like two men," and Walter puts molasses all over his meat and vegetables, to Scout's horror.When she criticizes Walter Calpurnia calls her into the kitchen to scold her andslaps her as she returns to the dining room, telling her to be a better hostess.Back at school, Miss Caroline becomes terrified when a tiny bug, or "Cootie," crawls out of a boy's hair.The boy is Burris Ewell, a member of the Ewell clan, which is even poorer andless respectable than the Cunningham clan.Burris only comes to school the first day of every school year, making a tokenappearance to avoid trouble with the law.He leaves the classroom, making enough vicious remarks to cause the teacherto cry. At home, Atticus follows Scout outside to ask her if something is wrong, towhich she responds that she is not feeling well.She tells him that she does not think she will go to school anymore andsuggests that he could teach her himself.Atticus replies that the law demands that she go to school, but he promises tokeep reading to her, as long as she does not tell her teacher about it

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September arrives, and Dill leaves Maycomb to return to the town of Meridian.Scout prepares to go to school for the first time, an event that she has been eagerly anticipating.Once she is finally at school she finds that her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, deals poorly with children.When Miss Caroline concludes that Atticus must have taught Scout to read, she becomes very displeased and makes Scout feel guilty for being educated. At recess, Scout complains to Jem, but Jem says that Miss Caroline is just trying out a new method of teaching.Miss Caroline and Scout get along badly in the afternoon as well. Walter Cunningham, a boy in Scout's class, has not brought a lunch.Miss Caroline offers him a quarter to buy lunch, telling him that he can pay her back tomorrow. Walter's family is large and poor-so poor that they pay Atticus with hickory nuts, turnip greens, or other goods when they need legal help-and Walter will never be able to pay the teacher back or bring a lunch to school.When Scout attempts to explain these circumstances Miss Caroline fails to understand and grows so frustrated that she slaps Scout's hand with a ruler.

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The story is narrated by a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, who is almost always called by her nickname, Scout.The first of her ancestors to come to America was a fur-trader and apothecary named Simon Finch, who fled England to escape religious persecution and established a successful farm on the banks of the Alabama River.The farm, called Finch's Landing, supported the family for many years.The first Finches to make a living away from the farm were Scout's father, Atticus Finch, who became a lawyer in the nearby town of Maycomb, and his brother, Jack Finch, who went to medical school in Boston.Their sister, Alexandra Finch, stayed to run the Landing.The boy, who calls himself Dill, stays for the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel Haverford, who owns the house next to the Finches'.Dill doesn't like to discuss his father's absence from his life, but he is otherwise a talkative and extremely intelligent boy who quickly becomes the Finch children's chief playmate.Dill is fascinated by Boo and tries to convince the Finch children to help him lure this phantom of Maycomb outside.