In To Kill a Mockingbird, who are the guests in the Finch home and why did they gather there?

Toward the end of the novel, Aunt Alexandra hosts a
meeting of the women's missionary society group that she belongs to.  This is where the
women of Maycomb gather to discuss how to save the people of a tribe of un-Christian
Africans, even as they engage in very un-Christian like conversations about the people
in their small town.  Miss Maudie in particular notes the hypocrisy of the women who
indirectly criticize Atticus for defending Tom Robinson even as they sit in his home
eating his food.

 At the final meeting of the novel, the
reader sees how much Scout has changed throughout the book. She had typically hated
anything Aunt Alexandra tried to teach her, including socializing with the ladies of the
missionary society. By the end of the novel, though, Scout is behaving more like a
Southern lady, and is able to emulate Aunt Alexandra, remaining a calm hostess even
after receiving the devastating news that Tom Robinson had died trying to escape from
jail.