The story takes place in a brothel in New Orleans. World War I is approaching, and the situation is turbulent. Only in this brothel, everything is proceeding in an orderly manner as usual. 12-year-old Violet (Broke Shields) lives with her mother Heidi (Susan Sarandon) and her younger brother. For her, the only big thing recently is her virginity that is about to be auctioned off.
As a photographer for the brothel, Bellock (Keith Carradine) seems to be out of tune with the open environment. His eyes have always been on the young and beautiful Violet. Soon after, Heidi hooked up with a rich man and left the brothel with her son, Violet being the one to be abandoned. When Violet was desperate, Belloc took her in, and the two began to live together, but Violet's eccentric character made Belloc unbearable, and the relationship ended in a breakup. However, what the two of them didn't know at this time was that this was just the beginning of their long emotional entanglement
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