A teenage orphan spends ten years traveling cross-country experiencing life, love and heartbreak. Based on E.L. Doctorow's story, "Jolene: A Life."

The film is a romantic comedy about a Portuguese widow whose husband had been a fisherman who died at sea. The widow's teenage daughter wants to be a professional gambler and she convinces her mother to date a British man whose new in town. The widow falls for the Brit, who pretends to be in the fishing business but is actually a professional gambler. The naive daughter gets into some trouble.