In his foreword to the paperback edition, Stephen King provides background on the geography of northwestern Maine and the history of the solar eclipse he discusses in the book. King describes two small towns—Sharbot and Little Tall Island—that were linked by a total eclipse in 1963. Furthermore, King notes that during this eclipse “two people who would never meet sensed each other” (xvii). These two individuals are Dolores Claiborne, the protagonist of the novel, and Jessie Mahout Burlingame, whose story is told in King’s later novel Gerald’s Game.

Framed as a transcript of Dolores Claiborne’s testimony, the novel begins with Dolores explaining that she understands her rights and is there to provide a statement to the police regarding the death of Vera Donovan, her employer. From the start, Dolores asserts that she did not kill Vera, but readily admits that she killed her husband, Joe St. George. Dolores shares the history of her work for Vera Donovan, which began in the 1950s with summer housekeeping and progressed to full-time housekeeping and serving as a “paid companion” after the death of Joe. As Vera suffered a number of strokes, she began to rely more fully on Dolores, and the younger woman moved into Vera’s house in 1982.