Humbert Humbert (Jeremy Irons), a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to New Hampshire for a teaching position. He allows himself to be rushed into a relationship with Charlotte Haze (Melanie Griffith), his widowed and sexually famished landlady of the home he is residing at, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman's flirtatious and beautiful 14-year-old daughter, Lolita (Dominique Swain), whom he has fallen hopelessly in love with. While Humbert tries to court the young Lolita, he finds that his affections being challenged and rivaled by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty (Frank Langella), who later kidnaps Lolita.