To Kill A Mockingbird Summary of Chapter 1
by Harper Lee

The narrator of the book is Scout Finch, the youngest child of Atticus Finch. Scout begins by telling us of her brother's injured arm and of her family history. The earliest ancestor is Simon Finch, a fur trader who established Finch's Landing outside of Maycomb Alabama. Scout's father is a lawyer and her mother passed away when she was two. She has an older brother named Jem. It is the summer and their neighbor's nephew Dill has come to stay for the summer. They spend the summer playing together and speculating about the Radley house. The most suspicious resident of the Radley place is Boo, who neighbors believe stalks the neighborhood at night. Dill challenges Jem to touch the Radley house, and after a couple of days of pressure, Jem gives in.