《 The Secret Life of Bees 》描述了生活在 1960s 的 14 岁女孩莉莉自幼丧母，与父亲相处并不融洽，与他相依为伴的只有黑人姑娘罗萨林，由于当时种族歧视严重，罗萨林也受到了残酷的对待，这样两个女孩决定离家出走 ... 她们遇见了乐观独立的鲍特莱三姐妹，在这三姐妹的蜜蜂养殖场里莉莉和罗萨林 经历了很多奇妙的体验 ...

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.