During which years does To Kill a Mockingbird's story take place?

To Kill a Mockingbird’s story takes place during 1933–1935. The setting is the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, and the events unfold across roughly three years of Scout Finch’s childhood.

Scout begins the novel at about six years old, living with her older brother Jem and their widowed father, Atticus. Each summer, their friend Dill Harris visits Maycomb, while the children become increasingly fascinated by their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley. The timeline then expands from childhood games to the Tom Robinson trial and its consequences.

The date range is often confused with the novel’s publication year, 1960, or with the era in which Harper Lee wrote the book. Lee’s story is set in the mid-1930s, while its publication came amid the American civil-rights movement. That distance lets the novel examine racism and injustice through an adult narrator remembering her childhood.