Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for her performance in the film version of Stephen King's novel Misery, here stars in another King adaptation, this time as a housekeeper accused of killing her elderly employer. Jennifer Jason Leigh co-stars as Bates's daughter, who suspects her mother is guilty of more than one killing. There are magnificent portrayals all round, especially from Christopher Plummer as a retired and vengeful cop, but Bates steals every scene she's in.

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.