Plot
In 1947, Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European professor of English literature, travels to the United States to take a teaching position in New Hampshire. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze, but only because he is sexually attracted to her 14-year-old daughter Dolores, whom he sees while touring the house. Obsessed with girls of approximately her age (whom he calls “nymphets”), Humbert is immediately smitten with Dolores, whom he nicknames “Lolita”, and marries Charlotte only to be near her daughter.

While the girl leaves for a summer camp, Charlotte finds Humbert’s secret diary and discovers his preference for her daughter instead of her. Furious, Charlotte tells him that she is leaving him and that he can keep her home. She then runs out of the house, only to be hit by a car and killed. Humbert goes to the camp and eventually tells Lolita about her mother’s death. Charlotte’s death frees Humbert to pursue a romantic and sexual relationship with Lolita. Humbert and Lolita then travel the country, staying in various motels before eventually settling in the college town of Beardsley, where Humbert takes a teaching job and Lolita begins attending Beardsley Prep School, an all-girls Catholic school.

Humbert must conceal the nature of his relationship with Lolita from everyone—strangers they encounter when traveling as well as the administration at Beardsley. He presents his relationship with Lolita to the world as a father and daughter. Over time, Lolita’s increasing boredom with Humbert, combined with her growing desire for independence and realization of their relationship, fuels a constant tension that leads to a fight between them. Humbert’s affection for Lolita is also rivaled by another man, playwright Clare Quilty, who has been pursuing Lolita since the beginning of the pair’s travels. Lolita eventually escapes with Quilty, and Humbert’s search for them is unsuccessful, especially as he does not know Quilty’s name.

Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita asking for money. Humbert visits Lolita, who is now married and pregnant. Her husband, Richard, knows nothing about her past. Humbert asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He gives her a substantial amount of money. Lolita also reveals to Humbert how Quilty actually tracked young girls and took them to Pavor Manor, his home in Parkington, to exploit them for child pornography. Quilty kicked her out of his mansion after she did not want to participate in films with other men. Lolita admits that she did not want to be with any man other than Quilty, stating, “He was the only man I was ever really crazy about”.

After he visits Lolita, Humbert tracks down Quilty, who is in a drug-induced stupor, and murders him after chasing him around the mansion at gunpoint. After being chased by the police, Humbert is arrested and sent to prison for the murder. He dies in prison in November 1950 due to a coronary thrombosis, and Lolita dies the next month on Christmas Day from childbirth complications.