Plot summary
Dolores Claiborne, an opinionated 65-year-old widow living on the tiny Maine community of Little Tall Island, is suspected of murdering her wealthy, elderly employer, Vera Donovan. The novel is presented as a transcript of her statement, told to the local constable and a stenographer. Dolores wants to make clear to the police that she did not kill Vera, whom she had looked after for years, but does confess to orchestrating the death of her husband, Joe St. George, almost thirty years previously. Dolores's confession develops into the story of her life, her troubled marriage, and her relationship with her employer.
Dolores first describes the arrival of Vera and her millionaire husband, who have bought a summer home on Little Tall Island in 1949. Able to cope with Vera's exacting standards, Dolores first takes a job as a maid, then becomes housekeeper at the Donovan home. After Vera's husband dies in a car crash in 1960, she spends increasing time at her island house, eventually moving there permanently. Vera suffers a series of strokes in the 1980s, whereupon Dolores becomes the woman's live-in caretaker and reluctant companion. As Vera slips into dementia, she experiences terrifying hallucinations. When lucid, she subjects Dolores to a series of mind games and power plays.
Dolores reveals that when she began working at the Donovan house, her marriage to Joe was already in difficulties due to his alcoholism, temper, and domestic violence. Their children, Selena, Joe Jr. and Pete, are unaware of the abuse. The marriage problems escalate one night in 1960 when Joe viciously hits Dolores in the back with a piece of stove wood over a perceived slight. In retaliation, Dolores smashes a ceramic jug over his head and threatens him with a hatchet, swearing she will kill him if he ever strikes her again. This confrontation is witnessed by Selena. Joe stops beating Dolores, but Selena does not realize Dolores was acting in self-defense, and Joe uses the incident to gain sympathy from her. A rift grows between mother and daughter.
In 1962, Dolores notices Selena becoming increasingly withdrawn. After some speculation, Dolores finally confronts her daughter as they return home on the island ferry. She explains the truth of the hatchet incident and Selena reluctantly admits that Joe molested her. Dolores vows to protect her. That night, she considers murdering Joe, but instead, she confronts him, promising to have him arrested if he ever touches Selena again.
Dolores resolves to leave Joe, but when she attempts to withdraw her savings to fund their escape, she discovers Joe has stolen everything. In despair, she confides in Vera. An unusually sympathetic Vera casually remarks that men like Joe often die in accidents, leaving their wives everything. As she departs, she implies that she arranged the car crash that killed her husband and advises Dolores that "sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman's best friend."
Dolores begins plotting Joe's death, but she does not find an opportunity to execute her plan until the following summer. Vera becomes obsessed with a total solar eclipse that will be visible from the island, believing that the event will convince her estranged children to visit her. She plans a massive viewing party on the island ferry. Seeing the distraction as an opportunity, Dolores sends Selena to camp, and Joe Jr. and Pete are sent to visit family on the mainland. Dolores marks the location of a dried-up well in a patch of brambles on the edge of her property. When it becomes clear her children will not be joining her for the eclipse, Vera becomes despondent and lashes out at her hired help, calming only after Dolores confronts her over the unjust firing of one of the maids.
On the day of the eclipse, Dolores buys Joe a bottle of scotch and makes him a sandwich, lowering his guard, and they share their first moment of affection in many years. As the eclipse begins, Dolores has a vision of a young girl in the path of the eclipse who is being sexually abused by her father at that same moment. Reminded of what she has set out to do, she deliberately enrages Joe by claiming she has recovered the money he had stolen, provoking him into attacking her. She flees into the brambles, leading Joe to the well and tricking him into stepping on the rotted boards that cover it. The planks break and Joe falls into the well, severely injured.
Joe calls out for help for some time before eventually losing consciousness. Dolores returns to the house and falls asleep. She has a nightmare, then checks the well. She arrives to discover that Joe has regained consciousness and has nearly managed to climb out. He grabs at Dolores and attempts to pull her in with him. She hits him in the face with a rock, and he falls back into the well, dead.
Dolores reports Joe missing, and his body is found after several days of searching. His death is ruled an accident despite the suspicions of the local coroner. Dolores is free of Joe, but her actions have damaged her relationship with Selena, who has her own suspicions. Rumors begin to circulate that she has gotten away with murder.
The narrative finally arrives at the circumstances of Vera's death, the event which has led Dolores to tell her story. She confesses that Vera, during one of her hallucinations, managed to leave her wheelchair and fell down a flight of stairs. As she falls, Dolores has a terrifying vision of Joe's ghost. Still alive and lucid in spite of her injuries, Vera begs Dolores to help end her suffering. Dolores fetches a rolling pin, meaning to dispatch her, but Vera dies before she can use it. The incriminating scene is discovered by the local mailman, who suspects Dolores of killing the old woman and forces her to call the police.
That night, Dolores is harassed by members of the community who believe she has already escaped punishment for murder in the past. The next day, she receives a phone call from Vera's lawyer, who informs a shocked Dolores that she has inherited Vera's entire fortune—nearly $30 million. Dolores initially refuses the money, believing it should go to Vera's estranged children, but learns that the children were killed in a car crash in 1961, and that Vera has spent the last thirty years of her life pretending to herself that they were still alive. Knowing the inheritance will be seen as a motive and worsen the case against her, Dolores realizes that the only way to clear her name is to confess everything. Feeling at peace with herself at long last, she ends her statement.
Several newspaper articles provide an epilogue to the story, revealing that Dolores was cleared of any blame in Vera's death and has anonymously donated Vera's fortune to the New England Home for Little Wanderers. The final article implies that Dolores and Selena have reconciled and that Selena will be coming home for the first time in twenty years.
