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Summary

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of 14 year-old Lily Owens, whose life is shaped by her blurred memory of the afternoon of her mother's accidental death.

Confused and saddened by her daily life style, Lily looks to the bees that visit her room for comfort. Things take a turn; however, when Lily's black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, chewing snuff, spits on the shoes of a white man and then refuses to apologize. Rosaleen is beaten and jailed along with Lily. T.Ray only bails out Lily, even though Rosaleen had given him at least 10 years of housekeeping and nanny duties. Outraged, Lily ends up breaking Rosaleen out of a hospital. She decides their destination is Tiburon, South Carolina because she found a small, wooden plaque with an image of a black Virgin Mary pasted on it, and the words "Tiburon, SC" carved on the back in her mother's belongings.

In Tiburon, Lily sees the same Black Madonna adorning a bottle of honey at a diner. She and Rosaleen go to find the woman who makes it, August Boatwright who lives with her sisters: May who is a bit light-headed, and June who is an ardent feminist.