Alabama in the 1930s. The children Scout (Mary Badham) & Jem (Phillip Alford) play in the street, while their lawyer father Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) defends a black man accused of raping a young white woman. The controversial nature of the trial, taking place in the racist culture of the Deep South, leads the local townsfolk to turn against Finch & sees his family become the victim of a series of terror attacks. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, ' To Kill a Mockingbird' won Oscars for Peck & screenwriter Horton Foote.