As a young child, Mattie doesn't realize she's a slave until she's plucked from the main house and taken to a new Georgia cotton plantation working the fields. She hates everything about it, except one thing: her friendship with James, the plantation owner's young son, and their secret meetings where he teaches her to read. As desperate as her circumstances are, a seed of hope is planted that will take root and not let go until her dreams of freedom are realized. Now adults during the Civil War, James and Mattie must overcome family betrayal, oppression, and the horrors of war for their love, for Mattie's freedom, and for the tiny chance of happiness within their grasp. WHEN THE MOCKINGBIRD SINGS is a moving tribute to what the human soul is capable of when allowed to hope.