Unlike Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version, Lyne remained close to the original story of sophisticated European literature professor Humbert Humbert (Jeremy Irons), an outwardly genteel man who is inwardly obsessed with a tragic adolescent first love. He comes to the U.S. to take a job in New England and decides to board at the home of the endlessly chatty widow Haze (Melanie Griffith) after he spies her beautiful pre-teen daughter Lolita (Dominique Swain) cavorting in the yard. Lolita reminds Humbert of Anabel, his lost love. He becomes so obsessed with having Lolita that he marries her mother, a woman he despises. One day his wife reads his diary, learns the truth and is accidentally killed while trying to get revenge. Humbert does not tell Lolita when he picks her up at summer camp. Instead he takes her on the road. They become lovers, but their relationship is stormy, for Lolita is manipulative and demanding, and she plays sexual games.
