The year is 1947 and Humbert Humbert, a professor of French literature, travels to a small town to take a teaching post. He rooms with a sexy widow named Charlotte Haze and her 12-year-old daughter Lolita. Charlotte sees the dashing Humbert as the fulfillment of all her dreams and avidly begins to pursue him as a future husband. But the professor carries with him a poisonous wound: the indelible memory of a frustrated childhood romance that ended with the untimely death of his 12-year-old love. The unrequited past pushes Humbert towards the fulfillment of his own dreams: Lolita. While Charlotte courts Humbert, he finds himself courting courting Lolita. Through an extraordinary series of twists, Humbert wins her affections until the evil Quilty enters the picture. Together the oddest of couples sets off on a cross-country trip across America that concludes in tragedy.