Fact1: Dolores Claiborne works as domestic servant on Little Tall Island in Maine, Fact2: mailman sees standing over Vera with rolling pin apparently intending to kill her, Fact3: Dolores daughter is successful journalist living in New York City, Fact4: Selena arrives in town to support mother, Fact5: Detective John Mackey is determined to put Dolores away for life
Output: In 1995, Dolores Claiborne works as a domestic servant on Little Tall Island in Maine. Dolores has a struggle with her elderly, paralyzed employer, Vera Donovan, in her mansion. Vera falls down the staircase and Dolores ransacks the kitchen. She is caught by a mailman, who sees her standing over Vera with a rolling pin, apparently intending to kill her. Vera dies and the police begin a murder investigation. Dolores daughter, Selena St. George, is a successful journalist, living in New York City, who battles depression and substance abuse. Selena arrives in town to support her mother, despite her own doubts about Dolores innocence. Dolores insists she did not kill her employer. Selena finds little sympathy for Dolores, as the entire town believes she murdered her husband, Joe St. George, almost 20 years earlier. Some of the towns inhabitants harass her by vandalizing her home, taunting her in the street, and driving by her house and screaming at her. Detective John Mackey, who was the chief detective in her husbands murder case, is determined to put Dolores away for life. Selena also believes Dolores killed her father, and has not spoken to her mother in over a decade. In 1975, Joe was an abusive alcoholic, and one night Dolores had threatened to kill him if he ever harmed her again. Selena, then 13 years old, was unaware her mother was being abused. Dolores went to work as a housemaid for millionaire Vera Donovan in order to raise enough money to pay for Selenas education. Dolores went to the bank to withdraw her money so she and Selena could flee Joes abuse. The plan backfired, however, when the bank notified Dolores that Joe stole the money from Selenas savings account. Dolores says Vera threw herself down the staircase and begged Dolores to put her out of her misery. Mackey refuses to believe her, and reveals that Vera has left her entire fortune to Dolores. Mackey informs them the will is eight years old, which nearly convinces Selena her mother is guilty. Dolores eventually tells Selena that before he died, Dolores realized Joe was sexually abusing Selena when he gave her an heirloom locket. Selena has always furiously denied any abuse, and after a fierce argument, she storms out, leaving Dolores to fend for herself. Back in 1975, Dolores broke down and confessed Joes abuses to Vera, who remained characteristically cold until Dolores mentioned that he was molesting Selena. Turning unusually sympathetic, Vera implied she killed her own late, unfaithful husband, Jack, and engineered it to look like an accident. Veras confession formed a bond between the two women and convinced Dolores to take control of her situation. As a total solar eclipse approached, Dolores, who was pointedly given the rest of the day off by Vera. Selena had an argument about Dolores suspicions regarding Joes sexual abuse. Selena fled home for the weekend to work at a hotel, where guests had flocked for the eclipse. Joe soon returned from working on a fishing boat, and Dolores offered him a bottle of Scotch to celebrate the eclipse. After Joe got drunk, Dolores revealed she knew he stole from Selenas account and molested his own daughter, then provoked him into attacking her and falling down an old well, leaving him to die as he plunges to the stone bottom. Selena hears this entire story on a tape left for her by Dolores, who had foreseen her departure. While on the ferry, Selena suddenly uncovers a repressed memory of her father forcing her to give him a handjob. Realizing everything, Selena rushes back to Dolores as she is attending the coroners inquest. As Mackey makes a case to be sent to a grand jury in an attempt to indict Dolores for murder, Selena arrives and tells him he has no admissible evidence, he is only doing this because of his personal vendetta against Dolores, and that despite an often stormy relationship, Vera and Dolores loved each other. Realizing that the case would likely end with either a dismissal or acquittal, Mackey reluctantly drops the charges. Dolores and Selena reconcile on the ferry wharf before Selena returns to New York.