Jolene

Fifteen-year-old Jolene escapes the foster system and marries the nerdy 20-year-old Mickey. They move in with Mickey's Uncle Phil and Aunt Kay, starting a tense new chapter in a household full of secrets. The union is impulsive and sets the stage for a troubled sequence of events.

On the night before Jolene's sixteenth birthday, she asks Mickey about his mother and he rebuffs her, breaking down in tears. To ease his pain, Jolene seduces him, but Mickey's inexperience makes the encounter awkward and joyless. The moment marks a bitter beginning to their tumultuous relationship.

The next day, Phil becomes aroused by Jolene while she cleans and the two begin a secret affair. They pursue a passionate relationship behind their spouses' backs, with Phil promising things he should not. The affair tightens a web of deceit around Jolene's life.

Kay discovers Jolene in bed with Phil and responds by kicking Jolene out of the house. The family tension erupts into a painful rupture that shatters Jolene's domestic stability. Jolene's world quickly becomes unmoored.

Following a physical altercation with Phil, Mickey drives away and jumps off a bridge, ending his life. Jolene is left to cope with the tragedy as secrets and lies pile up around her. The suicide marks a turning point that deepens Jolene's isolation.

Aunt Kay places Jolene in a juvenile mental institution. Jolene befriends Cindy, a nurse who is immediately drawn to her, and discovers she can draw. She begins making and selling crayon portraits to fellow patients as a small, portable livelihood.

Jolene is called to testify against Uncle Phil, and he is sentenced to eighteen months in prison for statutory rape. The courtroom proceeding exposes a dark chapter of Jolene's life and begins to shape her future in significant ways. The outcome drastically alters the family dynamics.

Cindy, a closeted lesbian, becomes infatuated with Jolene and this culminates in another affair. She breaks Jolene out of the mental hospital and hides her in her apartment. Jolene begins a precarious life on the run, with a new partner complicating every step.

Using the money from her hospital portraits, Jolene boards a bus west from South Carolina and begins hitchhiking further west. She sustains herself through prostitution along the way, embracing a nomadic, dangerous lifestyle. The journey marks her break from her past and the start of a new grind.

Jolene arrives in Arizona, works as a waitress at an outdoor diner, and meets Coco Leger, an aspiring musician and tattoo artist. Their relationship grows quickly and she becomes a tattoo artist at his parlor. After two weeks, Coco convinces her to marry him.

Coco reveals a cocaine habit and is secretly married to a woman named Marin, who appears with their son Coco Jr. Jolene confronts the competing life, destroys the parlor, dumps the cocaine on a table, and flees after dialing 911. The violent emotional fallout forces Jolene to abandon the life she built with Coco.

Jolene moves to Las Vegas, working as an erotic dancer and living a life of luxury with mobster Sal Fontaine. One night, production of a larger world falters when Sal dies and the mob closes in, so Jolene escapes and hitchhikes to Tulsa.

In Tulsa, Jolene works as a receptionist and banquet server while Brad Benton relentlessly pursues her. On their wedding night, Brad rapes Jolene after pressuring her into marriage, and he later permanently damages her vocal cords during a violent confrontation. Jolene's hope for stability is crushed under his abuse.

After Jolene becomes pregnant, Brad's parents investigate her past and Jolene is arrested for kidnapping while Brad is granted an annulment. Jolene is allowed supervised visits with her baby, a fragile hold on motherhood that slips away as time passes.

Jolene ends up in Los Angeles, working as a comic illustrator for a graphic novel company and weaving her life into her art. In her final narration, she reveals dreams of becoming an actress and a possible studio offer. She imagines a triumphant return to Tulsa with her son and steps into a new life.