The Secret Life of Bees

Lily and Rosaleen are walking toward Tiburon when Lily realizes she has no plan for what they’re going to do once they get there. Lily tells Rosaleen that they will find a motel, and Rosaleen says there’s no hotel in South Carolina that’s going to let a Black woman stay there. Lily naively says that that was the point of the Civil Rights Act. When they get to town, Lily goes inside the general store to buy lunch for the two of them. In the store, she sees the same Virgin Mary card that she has from her mother plastered on the front of a row of jarred honey labeled “Black Madonna Honey.” The owner of the store tells Lily that the honey is made by August Boatwright, who has put the Black Virgin Mary on the honey because she herself is Black. The owner tells Lily where she can find August’s house.

Lily and Rosaleen arrive at a pink house, where they meet the three Boatwright sisters: August, June, and May. Lily decides to only tell August the half-truth about why her and Rosaleen are at her door, even though August recognizes Lily immediately. Lily tells August that both of her parents have died and that she and Rosaleen, her former housekeeper, are on their way to look for her aunt in Richmond, Virginia.